The  KIRK  on 


Rutgers  Farm 


Q  2  1 

MS 

■y^  '~T  £5 


Frederick  Briickbauer 


The  Kirk 


on 


Rutgers  Farm 


Churcti  of  the  Sea  a,nd  Land 


THE 


KIRK 


ON 


Rutgers  Farm 

By/ 
Irederick  Brucktauer 

ItttLstratcd  hy 
Pauline  JS  t  one 

^l?    5     1995 

Printed  by 
Peter  F.  Mallon,  Inc. 


/ 

To  the 

Men  and  Women        ' 

who  gave 

that  the  old  church 

might  refitain  at 

Market  and  Henry  Streets 


INTRODUCTION 

IT  is  evident  that  the  preparation  of  this 
volume  has  been  a  labor  of  love. 

Of  the  sanctuary  which,  for  one  hun- 
dred years,  has  stood  on  the  comer  of 
Market  and  Henry  Streets,  the  author,  like 
many  others  who  have  put  their  lives  into 
it,  might  well  say : 

"Thy  saints  take  pleasure  in  her  stones,         ^ 
Her  very  dust  to  them  is  dear." 

The  story  of  "The  Kirk  on  Rutgers 
Farm"  is  one  of  pathetic  interest.  In  its 
first  half -century  it  sheltered  a  worshipping 
congregation  of  staid  Knickerbocker  type, 
which,  tho  blest  with  a  ministry  of  extraor- 
dinary ability  and  spiritual  power,  suc- 
cumbed to  its  unfriendly  environment  and 
perished. 

In  its  second  half -century  it  became  the 
home  of  a  flock  of  God,  poor  in  this  world's 
goods,  but  rich  in  faith,  to  whom  the  en- 
vironment even  when  changing  from  bad  to 
worse,  was  a  challenge  to  faith  and  valiant 
service.  Those  of  us  who  in  our  unwisdom 
5 


Introduction 

said  a  generation  ago  that  it  ought  to  die 
judged  after  the  outward  appearance. 
Those  who  protested  that  it  must  not  die, 
took  counsel  with  the  spirit  that  animated 
them,  saw  the  invisible  and  against  hope  be- 
lieved in  hope. 

Not  the  least  impressive  pages  of  this 
book  are  the  pages  which  record  the  names 
of  ministers  and  other  toilers  for  Christ, 
who  in  this  field  of  heroic  achievement  have 
lived  to  serve  or  have  died  in  service. 

The  author  has  very  skilfully  concealed 
his  personal  connection  with  the  history  of 
which  he  might  justly  say :  "Magna  pars 
f ui."  But  for  his  wise  and  winsome  leader- 
ship the  chronicle  would  have  closed  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  ago. 

By  putting  in  form  and  preserving  the 
memories  which  cluster  about  the  Church 
of  the  Sea  and  Land,  he  is  performing  a 
real  service  to  the  Christian  community  and 
earning  the  gratitude  of  fellow-laborers  to 
whom  it  has  been  a  shrine  of  their  heart's 
devotion. 

Gf.orgh;  Alexander. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm . . .  Frontispiece 

Page 

Henry  Rutgers 12 

The  Rutgers  Mansion 15 

Rutgers  Tablet 17 

Nathan  Hale  Statue  19 

First  Presidential  Mansion 2Q 

Tablet  in  Church  Vestibule 22 

Philip  Milledoler  23 

North  Dutch  Church   24 

Isaac  Ferris   28 

Organ 29 

Old  Lecture  Room  Pulpit 30 

Theodore  L.  Cuyler  at  Market  Street. .  34 

Theodore  L.  Cuyler  later 35 

Pew 41 

Bell 46 

Sailors'  Home 5° 

52  Market  Street 5^ 

Hanson  K.  Corning 52 

Edward  Hopper 5^ 

Communion  Service   5^ 

Christian  A.  Borella 61 

7 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

Page 

Andrew  Beattie  68 

Old  Sunday  School  Room 69 

Alexander  W.  Sproull 71 

Col.  Robert  G.  Shaw 72 

Kindergarten 73 

Old  Church  Flag 78 

John  Hopkins  Denison 81 

Tower  Study   82 

52  Henry  Street 83 

Fresh  Air  Children 84 

New  Church  Flag 87 

John  Denham 91 

Old  61  Henry  Street 94 

New  61  Henry  Street 95 

Staten  Island  House  when  bought  ....  96 

Staten  Island  House  renovated 97 

Kitchen  for  Cooking  Classes 99 

Pulpit    104 

Back  of  Pulpit 107 


IF  there  be  one  thing  certain  about 
New  York  it  is  that  nothing  remains 
unchanged.  Not  only  do  pubhc 
works  like  the  bridges  change  the  face  of 
things,  but  private  activity  effaces  great 
structures  to  build  up  still  greater  ones. 
This  march  of  progress  is  as  relentless' 
as  a  modern  army,  levelling  all  before  it. 
In  other  lands  churches  have  been 
spared  tho  other  buildings  went  down, 
but  even  these  in  New  York  have  disap- 
peared, whole  districts  being  deliberately 
deserted  because  churches  were  no  longer 
able  to  maintain  themselves  there  finan- 
cially. This  is  especially  true  of  the  great 
downtown  section  of  Manhattan,  the  Old 
New  York,  in  which  only  two  churches 
remain  that  have  stood  unchanged  for  a 
century.    Trinity  church  let  old  St.  John's 

9 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

go,  and  sixty  churches  have  disappeared 
in  forty  years  on  the  lower  East  Side 
alone.  We  lose  much  when  old  landmarks 
go,  when  we  can  not  make  history  more 
vivid  for  our  children  by  pointing  out 
where  the  great  men  of  another  day  wor- 
shipt,  men  of  a  day  when  other  public 
assemblies  were  rare,  and  the  church  was 
the  center  that  radiated  influence.  The 
old  building  is  of  value  because  of  the 
living  beings  associated  with  it  that  were 
the  life  of  the  community. 

New  York  has  hardly  appreciated  what 
its  great  families  have  meant  for  it  in  the 
past.  The  members  of  the  Rutgers  fam- 
ily, for  instance,  always  had  a  noble  share 
in  the  day  and  generation  in  which  they 
lived.  Their  ancestor  came  over  in  the 
early  days  from  Holland,  spent  some  time 
about  Albany,  and  then  came  to  New 
York,  branching  out  till  Rutgers  bouw- 
eries  and  Rutgers  breweries  were  found 
in  more  than  one  place. 

lO 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

A  Rutgers  was  on  the  jury  in  the  great 
Zenger  trial  that  estabHsht  the  freedom 
of  the  colonial  press,, — "the  germ  of 
American  freedom."  The  Rutgers  were 
Sons  of  Liberty  and  the  Rutgers  farm 
near  Golden  Hill  was  one  of  their  meeting 
places.  A  Rutgers  was  a  member  of  the 
New  York  Provincial  Congress  and  also 
of  the  Stamp  Act  Congress.  Alexander 
Hamilton  was  engaged  in  a  famous  case 
when  a  Rutgers  defended  herself  against^ 
a  Tory  who  had  taken  possession  of  her 
property  during  the  Revolution. 

It  was  a  Rutgers  who  drained  the 
marshes  west  of  the  old  Collect  Pond  and 
so  laid  the  foundations  for  the  Lispenard 
fortunes :  a  Lispenard  married  a  fair 
daughter  of  his  neighbor  Rutgers.  That 
stream  still  runs  into  the  Broadway  Sub- 
way at  Canal  Street  apparently  uncon- 
trollable. 

One  Rutgers  fell  in  the  Battle  of  Long 
Island,  and  while  the  old  father  died  in 
zx 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


Albany,  the  British  revenged  themselves 
on  the  younger  brother  by  making  a  hos- 
pital of  his  fine  house  in  New  York.  The 
owner  kept  on  fighting  for  freedom 
during  the  whole  Revolutionary  War,  dis- 
tinguishing himself  at  White  Plains. 

This   was   Henry   Rutgers,   in   whom 
culminated  many  of  the  finest  character- 
istics of  a  noble  ancestry.    His  breadth  of 
view  in  an  age  not  quite  so  broad,  is  well 
shown  in  his  attitude  towards  churches 
and  schools.    When  he  decided  to  open 
Henry     up  his   farm  in  the  Seventh  Ward  for 
Rutgers  building  purposes  he  gave  land  at  Oliver 
and  Henry  Streets,  at  Market  and  Henry 
Streets  and  at  Rutgers  and  Henry  Streets 
for  churches,  and  there 
was  more  for  the  ask- 
ing, tho  only  the  Bap- 
tists,   the    Dutch    Re- 
formed and  the  Presby- 
terians took  advantage 
of  the  offer.    The  Rut- 


12 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

gers  Street  site  became  the  birthplace  of 
the  Rutgers  Presbyterian  church,  begin- 
ning May  13,  1798,  in  a  frame  building 
36x64.  In  1841  the  present  stone  church 
was  built,  and  in  1862,  as  did  others,  this 
organization  moved  uptown.  A  Mr. 
Briggs,  who  was  holding  the  property 
for  a  Protestant  denomination,  finally 
tired  of  waiting  and  sold  the  building  to 
the  Roman  Catholic  church,  in  whose 
hands  it  remains. 

In  1806  Rutgers  gave  the  land  for  the 
second  free  school,  and  he  succeeded 
Governor  Clinton  in  1828  as  president 
of  the  Free  School  Society.  Before  that 
day  education  was  not  a  state  matter,  but 
left  to  private  enterprise,  and  the  free 
schools  then  establisht  were  for  the 
poor.  Rutgers  more  than  once  paid  sal- 
aries and  other  school  bills  out  of  his  own 
pocket.  He  was  a  Regent  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  the  State  of  New  York  for  twenty- 
four  years,  and  a  Trustee  of  Princeton. 

13 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  farm 

Rutgers  was  not  above  mixing  in  with 
the  poHtical  Hfe  of  his  time:  he  was  a 
member  of  the  legislature  four  times  and 
took  a  prominent  part  in  the  election  of 
Thomas  Jefferson  as  President  of  the 
United  States. 

In  1811  he  raised  funds  for  the  first 
Tammany  Hall,  then  a  benevolent  or- 
ganization. 

During  the  War  of  1812,  Rutgers  pre- 
sided at  a  large  mass  meeting  calling  for 
the  defense  of  New  York  when  the  port 
was  blockaded  and  it  seemed  as  if  the 
British  would  attack  it.  He  was  a  large 
contributor  to  the  fund  from  which  forts 
were  hurriedly  erected  to  keep  the  enemy 
out, 

Rutgers  was  a  member  of  a  committee 
of  correspondence  formed  in  1819  to 
check  slavery.  He  lived  to  see  the  day, 
in  1827,  when  slavery  was  abolisht  in 
New  York  State. 

14 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

His  services  to  the  Dutch  church  and 
his  munificence  brought  about  a  change  of 
name  of  the  college  at  New  Brunswick 
from  Queens  to  Rutgers  College.  It  is 
true  the  sum  given  was  only  $5,000  and 
Rutgers  was  one  of  the  richest  men  in 
New  York.  In  our  day  when  only  bil- 
lions seem  to  count  we  may  well  hark 
back  to  the  days  of  simpler  things. 

For  many  years  Henry  Rutgers  gave  a 
cake  and  a  book  to  every  boy  who  called' 
on  him  on  New  Year's  Day.  The  chil- 
dren gathered  about  his  door  and  he  made 
an  address  "of  a  religious  character." 

Colonel  Rutgers  lived  in  "a  large,  su-  „ 

°  °  Rutgers 

perbly   furnished  mansion,"  on  Rutgers  Mansion 
Place,    "for    many    years    a    capitol    of 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

fashion,  where  met  all  the  leaders  of  the 
day."  Here  was  given  "the  most  notable 
reception  of  the  time  to  General  Washing- 
ton and  Colonel  Willett,"  after  the  latter's 
return  from  his  mission  to  the  Creek 
Indians,  the  most  powerful  confederacy 
then  on  our  borders.  Here,  also,  in  1824, 
Lafayette  was  entertained  "like  a  prince," 
so  the  great  Frenchman  said. 

The  house  was  built  in  1755  by  the 
Colonel's  father,  with  brick  brought  from 
Holland.  It  stood  on  Monroe  Street  till 
1865.  But  it  was  none  too  fine  for  the 
owner  to  give  his  fences  for  firewood  one 
hard  winter  when  fuel  was  scarce  and 
trees  in  the  streets  were  cut  down  to  bum. 
Next  summer  the  Rutgers  orchard  was 
said  to  have  been  safer  than  if  the  fence 
had  been  there. 

"The  well-beloved  citizen"  died  Febru- 
ary 17,  1830,  in  the  mansion  in  which  he 
had  lived  nearly  eighty  years.  On  Feb- 
ruary 28,  a  great  memorial  service  was 

x6 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


held  in  the  Market  Street  church.  Dr. 
McMurray,  the  pastor,  whose  tablet  is  op- 
posite that  of  Rutgers  in  the  church, 
preached  the  sermon,  which  was  printed 
later,  speaking  of  his  "unimpeachable 
moral  character,  his  uniform  consistency," 
and  saying  that  there  was  "scarcely  a 
benevolent  object  or  humane  institution 
which    he    had    not    liberally    assisted." 

Colonel  Rutgers  spent  one- fourth  of  his 

i. 
income  in  charity,  many  of  his  benevo- 
lences being  personal,  gifts  not  only  of 
money,  but  advice  and  sympathy. 

Rutgers  was  a  bachelor  and  on  his  Rutgers 
death  the  bulk  of  his  estate,  over  $900,-  Tablet 
000,  went  to  the  grandson 
of  his  sister  Catherine, 
William  B.  Crosby.  "Uncle 
Rutgers"  had  virtually 
adopted  the  boy  when  early 
left  an  orphan.  Among  the 
provisions  of  the  Rutgers 
will  was  one  that  bespoke 

17 


SACREI> 

TO     TMC 

nenoRY"  or 

COU  HENRf  ■R.UTOE.RS 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

the  testator:  Hannah,  a  superannuated 
negress,  was  to  be  supported  by  the  estate 
for  the  rest  of  her  life.  This  while 
slavery  was  still  legal  in  1823, 

William  B.  Crosby  was  a  colonel  in 
the  War  of  1812.  He  died  March  18, 
1865.  A  son  of  his  was  Howard  Crosby, 
more  than  a  generation  ago  one  of  the 
best-known  preachers  of  New  York,  a 
man  great  physically  and  spiritually.  He 
was  moderator  of  the  Presbyterian  Gen- 
eral Assembly  and  one  of  the  revisers  of 
the  Bible.  He  died  in  1891.  Another 
Crosby  was  in  the  State  Legislature. 

The  direct  line  of  the  Rutgers  family 
died  out,  but  they  were  intermarried  with 
about  every  prominent  family  of  the  city. 
The  daughters  were  more  numerous  than 
the  sons  and  appear  to  have  had  a  reputa- 
tion for  good  looks  and  good  works. 
They  were  the  wives  of  rectors,  bishops, 
postmasters,  mayors,  secretaries  of  state, 
judges,  and  so  on. 

i8 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


On  November  25,  1816,  Rutgers  had 
deeded  five  lots  for  a  Dutch  Reformed 
church. 

The  neighborhood  in  which  the  Market 
Street  church  was  to  be  located  was  redo- 
lent with  historic  associations.    The  Brit- 
ish provost  marshal  hung  Nathan  Hale 
on  "an  apple  tree  in  the  Rutgers  orchard," 
the  exact  spot  adjoining  the  church  prop- 
erty.    Nearby   on   Cherry   Hill,   in  the  Nathan 
Franklin  House,  the  first  President  of  Hale 
the  United  States  lived  for  a  time,  as  did  Statue 
John  Hancock  and  members  of  Washing- 
ton's cabinet  on  the  inauguration  of  the 
Federal  Government. 

In  the  immediate  vicinity 
was  the  Walton  House,  re- 
ferred to  in  parliament  as  so 
richly   furnished   that  the 
colonies   needed   no   relief 
from  taxation. 

Close    by    the    church 
lands,   on  July  27,    1790, 


19 


'te; 


''ft---  «. 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  farm 


First 

Presidential 

Mansion 


Rutgers  on  his  own  grounds  paraded  the 
miHtia  before  President  Washington, 
Governor  Clinton  and  visiting  Indian 
chiefs,  and  thereafter  he  was  Colonel  Rut- 
gers. Gilbert  Stuart  painted  Washing- 
ton's portrait  at  that  time  and  it  was  a 
prized  possession  in  the  Rutgers  mansion. 

Just  north  on  the  Bowery  was  the  old 
Bull's  Head  Tavern,  "the  last  stop  before 
entering  town."  On  the  evacuation  of 
New  York,  Washington  and  his  officers 
rested  here  before  re-occupying  the  city. 
In  connection  with  it  the  Astor  fortunes 
were  laid,  and  Astor  was  not  very  popular 
with  the  other  butchers  either,  because  of 
his  business  methods. 

In  Cherry  Street  a  hundred  years  ago 
a  sea  captain  and  his  wife  made  the  first 
American  flag  of  the  present  type :  thir- 
teen stripes  and  an  ever-expanding  starry 

field. 

At  the  foot  of 
Pike    Street, — 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

the  river  then  was  nearer  the  church  than 
now, — Robert  Fulton  built  his  first  steam- 
boat in  1807,  and  in  May,  1819,  just  one 
hundred  years  ago,  the  Savannah  docked 
in  the  same  place,  after  the  first  steam- 
boat trip  across  the  ocean,  made  in 
twenty-two  days. 

Not  quite  so  pleasant  a  memory  is  the 
fact  that  Market  Street  was  the  new 
name  for  George  Street,  of  not  very  fa- 
vorable repute,  until  the  quiet  Quakers' 
built  £ne  little  houses  there,  surrounded 
by  gardens,  driving  out  denizens  of  a  less 
sedate  disposition. 

A  fine  story  is  told  of  an  old  lady,  who 
was  advised  not  to  go  to  the  Market 
Street  church  because  of  the  neighbor- 
hood it  was  in.  She  replied  that  Colonel 
Rutgers  was  going  there  "and  where 
Colonel  Rutgers  goes  any  lady  can  go." 

In  1819  wolves  were  still  killed  on  the 
"outskirts,"  that  being  the  present  Gram- 
ercy  Park. 

31 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


Tablet 
in  Church 
Vestibule 


After  the  establishment  of  the  Franklin 
Street  church  in  1807,  no  further  at- 
tempt was  made  by  the  Dutch  church  to 
extend  its  work  until  in  1817  the  offer 
made  by  Henry  Rutgers  was  taken  up. 
About  the  same  time  the  Houston  Street 
and  Broome  Street  churches  were  added. 


FOUNDED  A.  D.  1817, 

Completed    &    Dedicated    to    the    Worship 

of   Almighty    God,    the   27th   day   of  June 

A.  D.   1819: 

on  ground  generously  presented  for  the  Site  of  a 

REFORMED    DUTCH    CHURCH    by 

Col.  HENRY  RUTGERS; 

to  the  Rev.  Philip  Milledoler,  D.D.,  the  Rev.  James 

M.   Matthews,   Peter  Wilson,   LL,.D.,   Isaac  Heyer, 

Matthias     Bruen,      Peter      Sharpe,     and     William 

B.    Crosby,         Trustees; 

Under  whose  Superintendence  it  was  erected. 


To  make  the  Market  Street  build- 
ing possible  Rutgers  gave  a  large  sum, 
and  he  named  the  trustees  "under  whose 
superintendence"  the  building  was  to  be 
erected.    They  were  a  noble  group : 

Rev.  Philip  Milledoler,  D.D.;  Rev. 
James     M.     Matthews,     Peter    Wilson, 


22 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


LL.D.;    Isaac   Heyer,   Matthias   Bruen, 
Peter  Sharpe  and  William  B.  Crosby. 

Dr.  Milledoler  was  one  of  the  great 
men  of  the  time.  He  was  born  in  Rhine- 
beck,  September  22,  1775,  and  educated 
in  Edinburgh.  He  was  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  American  Bible  Society, 
and  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Trustees 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  In  Novem- 
ber, 1803,  he  became  colleague  pastor  of 
the  First  Collegiate  church,  and  in  April, 
1809,  on  division  by  Presbytery,  sole  pas- 
tor of  the  Rutgers  Presbyterian  church. 
He  remained  here  until  1813,  when  he 
entered  the  Reformed  Church.  He  was 
president  of  Rutgers  College  from  1823 
to  1841. 

Rev.  James  Macfarlane  Matthews  was 
professor  "in  the  first  theological  semi- 
nary of  which  New  York  could 
boast."      It    was    considered 
Scotch  Presbyterian. 

Dr.  Peter  Wilson  was  pro- 

23 


Philip 
Milledoler 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


North 
Dutch 
Church 


fessor  of  languages  in  the  university,  as 
was  also  Isaac  Heyer. 

Matthias  Bruen  was  "one  of  the  mer- 
chant princes  of  New  York." 

Peter  Sharpe  was  a  "whip  manufac- 
turer" and  William  B.  Crosby  is  listed 
as  "gentleman." 

Nothing  is  known  of  the  architect  or 
builder,  tho  they  were  probably  the 
same,  as  was  the  fashion  of  the  time.  The 
building  was  required  by  the  deed  "to  be 
of  brick  or  stone  materials,  and  the 
whole  building  of  a  size  not  less 
than  that  of  the  Presbyterian  church 
in  Rutgers  Street."  A  hundred 
years  have  proven  the  substantial 
character  of  the  Market  Street 
church.  The  men  of  that  day  did 
their  work  well.  Whether  it  was 
a  simplified  copy  of  the  North 
Dutch  church  or  not  is  not 
known.  It  looks  much  like 
it,  tho  the  tower  is  simpler 

24 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

and  the  two  rows  of  windows  in  the  Ful- 
ton Street  building  become  one  row  of 
great  windows  on  Henry  Street.  But  it 
has  all  stood  the  test  of  time.  The  old 
hand-hewn  oak  timbers  still  span  the  lofty 
ceiling,  the  glistening  gray  stone  walls 
still  stand  four-square  against  all  the 
winds  that  blow.  The  hand-made  hinges 
and  numbers  are  still  on  the  pew  doors, 
and  the  so-called  slave  galleries  are  still 
there,  tho  neither  colored  servants  nor. 
Sunday  school  children  are  consigned 
to  them  now.  Hidden  away,  but  still 
there  are  the  hand-made  laths,  the  shingles 
under  the  tin  roof  and  the  four-foot 
thick  foundations. 

The  old  tower  is  there,  for  many  years 
untenanted,  until  the  men  came  who 
worked  and  lived  there,  a  place  of  se- 
clusion in  a  busy  time  and  neigh- 
borhood, and  if  the  symbols  on  the 
rough  walls  have  made  their  thoughts 
roam  to   the   early   Christian   days   the 

2S 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

telephone  brings  them  back  again   into 
1919. 

The  years  have  brought  some  changes ; 
better  heating  than  the  first  stoves, — the 
first  coal  bill  was  paid  in  February,  1832, 
and  a  new  furnace  cost  $150  in  1848; 
better  lighting  than  in  1819, — they  had 
no  gas  till  May,  1843, — ^but  there  have 
always  been  men  who  studied  to  maintain 
the  quiet  simplicity  and  beauty  of  the 
house,  never  more  marked  than  in  the 
days  of  its  centennial. 

The  Reformed  Protestant  Dutch  church 
in  Market  Streeet  was  "dedicated  to  the 
worship  of  Almighty  God"  on  June  27, 
1819,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Milledoler  preaching 
the  sermon.  On  September  8,  1819, 
twenty-four  members  united,  on  the  29th 
more  were  added,  but  "on  account  of 
the  prevailing  sickness"  the  consistory 
was  not  elected  until  November  10. 
Henry  Rutgers,  John  Redfield  and  Isaac 
Brinkerhoff    were    elected    elders,    and 

26 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  farm 

William  B.  Crosby,  Elbert  A.  Brink- 
erhoff  and  Thomas  Morrow  were  chosen 
as  deacons.  On  November  28,  1819,  they 
were  ordained.  On  the  day  following 
they  met  at  the  mansion  of  Colonel  Rut- 
gers, when  he  was  chosen  president  of  the 
consistory.  On  January  2,  1821,  the  prop- 
erty was  finally  deeded  to  the  consistory. 

The  first  minister  of  the  church  was 
William  McMurray,  D.D.,  "who  with 
fidelity  and  zeal"  served  from  1820  to' 
May,  1835. 

Dr.  McMurray  was  born  of  Scotch- 
Irish  parents  in  Washington  in  1783,  and 
graduated  from  Union  College  in  1804, 
studying  theology  under  the  famous  J. 
M.  Mason.  He  was  a  great  worker, 
preached  three  times  each  Sunday,  con- 
ducted catechism  classes,  and  is  said  to 
have  known  nearly  everyone  in  the  Sev- 
enth Ward.  He  contracted  typhoid  fever, 
lingered  for  a  while  and  died  September 
24,  1835. 

27 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


A  Sunday  school  was  started  in  1821. 
In  1834  the  elders  and  deacons  are  re- 
corded as  being:  Crosby,  Hoxie,  An- 
drews, Doig,  Moore,  Herrick,  Cisco, 
Montanye,  Conover  and  McCullough, 
all  famous  names.  Hoxie  and  Cisco 
were  wholesale  clothing  merchants  in 
Cherry  Street  then  the  center  for  that 
trade. 

In  August,  1836,  Dr.  McMurray  was 
succeeded  by  Isaac  Ferris.  He  was  a 
New  Yorker,  entered  Columbia  when  only 
fourteen  years  old,  graduated  with  first 
honors  and  fought  in  the  War  of  1812 
with  his  father.  The  Sunday  school  re- 
ported 213  pupils  at  the  time  of  his  com- 
Isaac  Ferris  ing,  which  soon  increased,  for  Dr.  Ferris 
paid  special  attention  to  the  school.  He 
was  president  of  the  New  York  Sunday 
School  Union  and  first  president 
of  the  Foreign  Mission  Board 
of  the  Dutch  Church.  The  church 
had  600  communicants,  and  was 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


described  as  "a.  fashionable  church  in  the 
aristocratic  Seventh  Ward." 

His  son,  Dr.  John  Ferris,  spent  much 
of  his  earlier  life  with  his  father.  Dr. 
Isaac  Ferris  died  June  13,  1873.  He  was 
tall,  broad  shouldered  and  of  commanding 
presence. 

In  1841  the  organ  was  ordered  and 
finally  completed  in  1844.  It  was  built  by 
Henry  Erben,  of  New  York,  whose  son 
became  admiral  in  the  Navy.  Experts 
tell  of  the  amount  of  lead  used  in  the  con- 
struction of  its  pipes.  It  is  still  pumped 
by  hand  as  in  the  olden  days.  John  Pye 
was  the  first  man  to  do  this.  George 
Lyoder  was  the  first  organist,  and  P.  A. 
Andri  the  first  chorister. 

In  1843,  on  the  land  back 
of  the  church  the  "Consis- 
tory Building"  was  erected. 
It  was  a  plain  brick  building 
with  a  high  stoop  and  heavy 
wooden  shutters     The  upper 

29 


Organ 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


floor  was  for  the  Sunday  school  and  pro- 
vided with  circular  seats  for  classes.  In  an 
alcove  on  one  side  and  closed  by  glass 
doors  was  the  library  railed  off  from  the 
rest  of  the  school.  On  the  main  floor  was 
the  lecture  room,  the  floor  of  which  rose 
in  the  back.  Between  the  stairways  lead- 
ing to  the  next  floor  was  a  platform  with 
two  heavy  Greek  columns  and  a  reading 
desk  between  them.  It  was  a  bold  boy 
who  would  run  back  there  thru  the 
dark  when  the  "infant  class"  met  in  the 
room.  The  columns  were  removed  in  the 
seventies  and  later  on  the  rounded  stiff 
.  ^^, ,         seats  went  too.    Then  the  floor  had  to  be 

in  Old 

Consistory    leveled  SO  that  the  room  could  be  put  to 
Building      general  use.     Before  that  it  was  possible 
to  reach  most  of  the  seats  only  by  pass- 
ing between  the  "leader"  and  the  audi- 
ence. 

In    the    base- 
ment    in     dingy 
mEltSg«sniiK^S39saB         quarters    in    the 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

rear  lived  the  sexton.  He  had  the  great 
improvement  of  having  water  brought 
into  the  house  in  June,  1847,  by  a  sixty- 
foot  hose.  Six  years  later  the  hydrant 
was  put  up  in  the  front  church  yard,  re- 
maining there  until  quite  recently. 

To  the  right  and  under  the  stoop  there 
was  a  hallway,  which  later  was  changed 
to  the  "pastor's  study,"  in  which  all 
smaller  important  meetings  were  held.  It 
was  in  this  little  room  that  the  session 
received  members  and  for  many  it  holds 
very  sacred  memories. 

There  were  no  pictures  in  the  building, 
but  later  a  few  mottoes  with  Bible  texts 
were  hung  about. 

In  early  days  a  part  of  the  building 
was  rented  for  use  as  a  school.  The  rental 
was  only  nominal.  At  the  time  of  the 
erection  of  the  consistory  building  the 
sidewalks  around  the  whole  property 
were  flagged  and  the  iron  fence  erected. 
31 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

In  1848  the  upper  floor  was  arranged 
for  the  Sunday  school  at  a  cost  of  $500. 
About  1871  doors  were  cut  thru  to  the 
galleries  of  the  church  from  the  upper 
floor.  For  more  than  twenty  years  this 
had  been  urged. 

John  Crosby  is  recorded  as  "paying  off 
the  church  debt  of  $10,542"  in  June, 
1852. 

Dr.  Ferris  left  in  1853  to  become  chan- 
cellor of  the  University  of  New  York, 
succeeding  his  friend,  Theodore  Freling- 
huysen.  The  first  chancellor  had  been  Dr. 
Matthews,  a  trustee  of  the  church,  and 
the  successors  of  Dr.  Ferris  were  Howard 
Crosby,  John  Hall  and  Henry  M.  Mc- 
Cracken,  So  of  six  chancellors  of  the 
university,  four  were  vitally  interested  in 
the  Market  Street  church. 


32 


II 


WITH  the  coming  of  Theodore 
Cuyler  a  new  era  opened  up 
for  the  old  Market  Street  church. 
Two  years  before  Dr.  Cuyler  had  spoken 
at  a  large  temperance  meeting  in  Tripler 
Hall,  together  with  General  Houston, 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  Horace  Mann  and 
other  celebrities.  It  was  his  first  public 
address  in  a  city  that  was  to  know  much 
of  him. 

In  1853  Mr.  Cuyler  was  called  and  in- 
stalled by  the  South  Classis  of  New 
York,  November  13,  1853.  He  says  that 
while  walking  along  Henry  Street  Judge 
Hoxie  said  to  Mr.  Lyles :  "If  our  young 
brother  will  come  and  work  in  the  Market 
Street  church  we  might  do  something 
yet." 

33 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


Cuyler  at 

Market 

Street 


Cuyler  lived  at  Pike  and  Madison 
Streets  and  later  in  Rutgers  Street.  His 
salary  was  $1,500,  advanced  later  to  $2,- 
500.  The  church  building  was  painted, 
and  in  1855  a  new  roof  was  put  on  at  the 
expense  of  the  pewholders. 

Opposite  the  church  on  the  northeast 
corner  was  a  large  and  select  private 
school.  At  11  Market  Street  later  was  a 
smaller  one,  headed  by  a  German  patriot, 
whose  son-in-law  was  one  of  the  great 
generals  during  the  Rebellion. 

In  his  address  in  the  church  at  the 
Eightieth  Anniversary,  Dr.  Cuyler  called 
it  "fighting  the  adversary  of  souls  and 
geography,"  for  even  in  Dr.  Ferris's 
time  there  were  indications  of  waning 
strength  because  of  "the  continued  emi- 
gration of  the  more  substantial  class  of 
church  members  from  the  down-town 
districts  of  the  city  uptown." 

But  the  indefatigable  Cuyler  post- 
poned the  evil  day,  and  for  seven  years 

34 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

of    intensest    activity    he    remained    in 
Market  Street. 

To  quote  Dr.  Cuyler:  "I  looked 
around  me  and  saw  there  were  a  good 
many  substantial  families  that  could  sup- 
port a  church  and  East  Broadway 
swarmed  with  young  men." 

"Here  was  the  lord  of  the  manor,  the 
nephew   of    Colonel    Rutgers,   Wm.    B. 
Crosby.     What  a  devoted  Christian  he 
was.    His  good  old  gray  head  moved  up     * 
to  the  pew  every  Sunday,  rain  or  shine. 
There  was  a  deacons'  pew,  and  in  the 
center  sat  the  best-known  man  in  New 
York,  Judge  Joseph  Hoxie.  When  we  said 
the  creed  and  nobody  joined  he  shouted  it, 
and  in  song  his  voice  was  heard  above 
the  choir.     There  sat  Jacob  Westervelt,     Theodore 
the  mayor  of  New  York,  and  he  boasted     Ledyard 
that  he  was  the  only  mem-  ^ 

ber   of   the   Dutch    Church 
who    c 
Bible." 


ber   of   the   Dutch    Church  — i?^-^    --v 

who    could    read    a    Dutch  ''^5^^2^     \\ 

_ (L  i^^St.  \  - 


35 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

The  galleries  were  packed  with  young 
men.  One,  a  young  Irish  boy,  Robert 
McBurney,  became  the  great  secretary  of 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association. 
Charles  Briggs  was  another  young  mem- 
ber, and  around  him  later  raged  the  bit- 
terest theological  controversy  of  the  cen- 
tury. 

During  the  summer  of  1854  the  serv- 
ice was  changed  to  4  P.  M.,  7 :  30  being 
resumed  in  September. 

In  1855  the  seats  in  the  gallery  were 
changed  from  four  rows  to  three  rows, 
and  the  infant  school  was  held  in  the 
"scholars'  gallery"  of  the  church.  The 
low  seats  are  still  in  the  second  gallery. 

A  stove  was  put  in,  too,  as  the  heating 
was  not  satisfactory. 

In  1855,  A.  D.  Stowell  came  as  Bible 
class  teacher  at  a  salary  of  $12  per 
month. 

Dr.  Cuyler  rightly  referred  to  it  as  a 
busy  old  hive,  for  from  Market  Street 
36 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

church  emanated  some  of  the  greatest  re- 
hgious  movements  of  the  century. 

Howard  Crosby,  son  of  William  B. 
Crosby,  and  brought  up  in  the  Market 
Street  church,  was  the  first  president  of 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association. 
Cuyler  became  interested  in  it  the  second 
year  of  its  existence  in  New  York,  and 
during  his  long  lifetime  he  never  ceased 
to  work  for  it.  But  if  the  church  had 
done  nought  else  than  bring  Robert  Mc- 
Burney  to  the  Association  it  would  have 
been  amply  repaid.  The  master  spirit  in 
the  Association  for  thirty  years  Mc- 
Burney's  name  is  written  in  golden  let- 
ters in  the  city's  history.  Morris  K. 
Jesup  and  William  E.  Dodge,  life-long 
friends  of  the  church,  were  early  Asso- 
ciation supporters. 

A  work  typical  of  Market  Street 
church  was  the  Fulton  Street  prayer- 
meeting,  started  by  Jeremiah  C.  Lam- 
phier,  who  sang  in  the  church  choir.    Dr. 

37 


The  'Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

Cuyler  credits  this  with  being  the  first 
move  in  the  tremendous  revival  that 
from  1856  to  1858  swayed  the  city,  and 
went  on  to  other  cities,  gathering  mo- 
mentum. Cuyler  says :  "In  three  or  four 
weeks  the  revival  so  absorbed  the  city 
that  business  men  crowded  into  the 
churches  from  12  to  3  each  day,  and 
when  Horace  Greeley  was  asked  to  start 
a  new  philanthropic  enterprise  he  said: 
"The  city  is  so  absorbed  with  this  revival 
that  it  has  no  time  for  anything  else." 

Market  Street  church  gathered  in  150 
new  members,  and  1859  was  one  of  the 
glorious  ones  in  the  history  of  the  church. 

Mr.  Lamphier  died  December  26, 
1898. 

In  the  Temperance  cause.  Dr.  Cuyler 
was  also  a  ceaseless  worker.  From  1851 
to  1857  he  was  in  close  alliance  with 
Neal  Dow,  then  at  the  height  of  his  fame 
as  a  prohibition  advocate. 

38 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

Another  organization  that  had  an  ear- 
nest supporter  in  Dr.  Cuyler  was  the 
Christian  Endeavor  Society,  tho  Cuyler 
gives  all  the  credit  for  its  fatherhood  to 
Rev.  F.  E.  Clarke. 

In  a  day  when  such  things  were  not 
common  Market  Street  church  got  deeply 
into  matters  civic.  "The  most  hideous 
sink  of  iniquity  and  loathsome  degrada- 
tion was  in  the  then  famous  Five 
Points,"  Baxter,  Worth,  Mulberry,  Park 
Streets,  not  far  from  the  church.  An  old 
building,  honeycombed  with  vaults  and 
secret  passages,  called  the  Old  Brewery, 
was  the  center  of  a  locality  that  boldly 
flouted  the  police.  Indeed,  for  years  the 
Old  Brewery  was  a  harbor  of  refuge  for 
any  criminal,  for  the  law  never  reached 
him  there,  nor  were  the  Five  Points  ever 
a  safe  place  to  walk  thru.  At  night  no 
one  dared  be  seen  there.  For  some  years 
the  Five  Points  had  played  a  physical 
part  in  the  elections,  and  many  a  riot  had 
its  inception  there. 

39 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

Then  the  city  put  thru  Worth  Street, 
formerly  known  as  Anthony  Street,  after 
a  Rutgers,  and  the  Old  Brewery  Mission 
was  establisht  there.  Thru  Mrs.  Pease, 
a  member  of  the  Market  Street  church, 
whose  husband  was  the  brave  projector 
of  the  Five  Points  House  of  Industry, 
the  church  became  interested  in  improv- 
ing conditions.  When  Mr.  Pease  went 
south,  his  place  was  taken  by  Benjamin 
R.  Barlow,  one  of  the  Market  Street 
elders. 

In  his  autobiography.  Dr.  Cuyler  tells 
how  he  "used  to  make  nocturnal  explora- 
tions of  some  of  those  satanic  quarters" 
to  keep  public  interest  awake  in  the  mis- 
sion work  at  the  Five  Points.  New 
Yorkers  who  remember  the  House  of 
Industry  of  thirty  years  ago  and  who 
now  look  at  Mulberry  Bend  Park  may 
well  thank  the  old  Market  Street  church 
that  the  Cow  Bay,  Bandit's  Roost,  the 
Old  Brewery  and  Cut  Throat  Alley  are 
40 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

things  of  the  past,  and  that  the  Five 
Points  are  known  to  this  later  day  only 
as  a  name.  No  second  Charles  Dickens 
will  cross  the  ocean  to  tell  us  that  "all 
that  is  loathsome,  drooping  and  decayed 
is  here." 

Few  men  have  been  in  touch  with  so 
many  public  movements  as  Dr.  Cuyler. 
He  was  the  personal  friend  of  statesmen, 
churchmen,  professors,  lecturers,  teach- 
ers, philanthropists,  diplomats,  poets  and 
presidents.  And  as  was  the  minister  so 
were  the  people  of  the  Market  Street 
church :  forward  in  every  movement  for 
the  betterment  of  mankind,  the  coming 
of  the  kingdom.  Some  of  the  best  fami- 
lies of  New  York  were  connected  there, 
and  as  fathers  bought  pews  for  the  sons 
when  they  married  it  was  a  family 
church.  These  names  are  frequent : 
Duryee,  Crosby,  Mersereau,  Brinkerhoff, 
Poillon,  Zophar  Mills,  Ludlam,  Suydam, 
Westervelt,     Way  dell, 

41 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

Chittenden,  Bartlett,  McKee,  Purdy  and 
a  host  of  others. 

Small  wonder  that  from  among  men 
like  these  great  institutions  should  come, 
that  the  Park  Bank  and  the  Nassau  Bank 
should  be  founded  by  Market  Street 
church  men.  The  annual  pew  rents  were 
$5,000,  then  a  large  sum. 

Perhaps  it  was  their  very  farsighted- 
ness that  made  the  people  of  the  church 
think  of  moving  uptown.  The  "brown- 
stone  front"  was  drawing  people  north- 
ward, and  Dr.  Cuyler  started  a  move- 
ment "to  erect  a  new  edifice  on  Murray 
Hill,  and  to  retain  the  old  building  in 
Market  Street  as  an  auxiliary  mission 
chapel."  Subscriptions  were  secured, 
William  E.  Dodge  heading  the  list.  But 
the  new  site  at  Park  Avenue  and  Thirty- 
fifth  Street  did  not  find  favor,  and  many 
were  opposed  to  the  whole  project,  so 
when  in  1860  the  consistory  was  to  vote 
42 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

the  first  payment,  the  whole  enterprise 
failed  by  one  vote. 

Dr.  Cuyler  said  he  would  thank  the 
good  old  man  who  cast  that  vote — Meade 
was  his  name — if  he  ever  met  him  in  the 
other  world.  He  resigned  from  Market 
Street  church,  his  ministry  ending  April 
7,  1860,  and  accepted  a  call  from  the 
little  Lafayette  Avenue  Presbyterian 
Church  in  Brooklyn.  His  friend,  Henry 
Ward  Beecher,  did  not  see  how  he  could 
get  a  congregation  there,  but  after  many 
years  of  ever-increasing  usefulness  Mr. 
Beecher  lived  to  say  to  Dr.  Cuyler :  "You 
are  now  in  the  center,  and  I  am  out  on 
the  circumference." 

It  was  strange  that  a  man  of  the  force- 
ful type  of  Cuyler  should  leave  a  church 
because  it  would  not  move  away,  and 
that  thirty  years  later  he  should  preach 
in  it,  rejoicing  in  its  continuing  prosper- 
ity. Strange,  too,  that  Cuyler  left  the 
Dutch  Church  for  the  Presbyterian,  and 

43 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

that  the  old  building  "changed  its  faith" 
in  like  manner. 

Rev.  Chauncey  D,  Murray  was  the 
next  pastor  of  the  Market  Street  church, 
the  classis  installing  him  March  10,  1861, 
and  he  was  succeeded  in  1863  by  Rev. 
Jacob  C.  Dutcher.  William  B.  Crosby, 
of  beloved  memory,  came  forward  with 
very  liberal  contributions  to  sustain  the 
church,  but  the  depletion  went  on.  In 
Mr.  Murray's  time  another  attempt  to 
move  uptown  had  failed. 

In  December,  1859,  the  courts  had  al- 
ready given  permission  for  a  sale,  but  on 
condition  that  another  church  be  built 
uptown  with  the  proceeds.  This  having 
failed,  under  a  revised  order  of  the  court 
the  building  was  deeded  to  Hanson  K. 
Corning  in  1866,  another  congrega- 
tion having  meanwhile  inaugurated  serv- 
ices there. 

The  old  consistory  lived  on  till  June 
2,  1869,  when  it  held  its  last  meeting  at 

44 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

the  home  of  R.  R.  Crosby,  in  Twenty- 
second  Street.  A  committee  had  secured 
the  necessary  legal  modifications  so  that 
the  temporalities  could  be  disposed  of. 
The  distribution  was  as  follows  : 

To  St.  Paul's  Reformed  church  on 
Twenty-first  Street,  $15,000;  $8,000  to 
the  Prospect  Hill  Reformed  church  on 
Eighty-fifth  Street,  and  about  $18,000 
to  the  Northwest  Reformed  church  on 
Twenty-third  Street.  A  $500  United 
States  bond  was  given  by  William  B. 
Crosby  to  the  Sunday  school  of  the 
Twenty-first  Street  church.  The  bap- 
tismal font  was  presented  to  St.  Paul's 
church,  the  splendid  communion  service 
to  the  Prospect  Hill  church.  All  these 
churches  have  past  out  of  existence.  The 
organ  was  presented  to  the  Church  of 
the  Sea  and  Land;  "the  property  right 
in  the  Henry  Rutgers  tablet  was  given 
to  R.  R.  Crosby;  the  McMurray  tablet 
to  Henry  Rutgers  McMurray.     A  vault 

45 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

in  Twenty-second  Street  was  given  to  the 
Prospect  Hill  church.  The  bell,  now 
loaned  to  the  Church  of  the  Sea  and 
Land,  was  given  in  a  revisionary  right 
to  the  consistory  of  the  Collegiate 
church,  in  case  it  ever  ceases  to  ring  for 
a  Protestant  church."  It  still  rings  un- 
disturbed, tho  it  has  not  in  the  memory 
of  man  swung  on  its  wheel.  Only  re- 
cently has  it  been  given  back  one  of  its 
earliest  powers:  it  is  to  ring  the  alarum 
if  all  modern  means  fail.  It  was  cast  in 
Troy  in  1847,  and  the  committee  (Cros- 
by, Conover  and  Lyles)  spent  $365.14  for 
it.  The  congregation  thought  too  much 
of  it  in  1848  to  allow  its  use  by  Engine 
Company  42  for  fire  alarms.  The  books 
of  the  Market  Street  church  were  left 
to  the  Collegiate  church  and  are  now  at 
New  Brunswick. 

All  this  having  been  done,  the 
president  of  the  consistory, 
Mahlon  T.  Hewitt,  handed  out 

46 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

the  remaining  letters  of  dismissal  to  D. 
W.  Woodford,  Robert  R.  Crosby,  Wil- 
liam Lain,  Dr.  Veranus  Morse,  John  Van 
Flick,  Henry  Taylor  and  Albert  I.  Lyon, 
and  made  a  formal  closing  address  in 
which  he  offered  "a  sincere  prayer  that 
its  old  walls  may  still  stand,  and  that  it 
may  continue  to  be  the  birthplace  of 
souls  into  the  kingdom  of  Christ."  The 
prayer  has  been  answered. 

Thus  ended  the  Protestant  Reformed 
Dutch  church  in  Market  Street  after  just 
fifty  years. 


47 


Ill 

WHILE  the  Market  Street  Re- 
formed Church  was  fighting  its 
last  fight,  a  little  congregation 
had  come  to  life  in  the  parlor  of  a  sailor's 
boarding  house.  It  was  intended  chiefly 
for  "seamen  and  others,"  the  "others"  re- 
ferring mostly  to  those  who  no  longer 
sailed  the  seas.  The  first  meeting  was 
held  June  7,  1864.  Those  were  the  days 
of  sailing  vessels;  the  New  York  of  the 
thirties  had  been  the  ship  building  center 
of  the  world,  especially  from  Pike  Street 
up.  At  every  pier  sail  boats  were  moored, 
coming  from  all  over  the  World,  and  as 
they  dismist  their  crews  on  arrival  it 
left  the  men  on  shore  unoccupied  until 
their  meager  wages  were  gone,  when  they 
were  crimped  for  another  voyage.     Low 

49 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


Sailors' 
Home 


dance  halls  and  worse  were  all  along  the 
river  front  and  the  sailor  was  their  prey. 
The  American  Seamen's  Friend  Society 
sprang  into  being  to  improve  the  situation, 
and  erected  a  fine  building  in  Cherry 
Street,  to  give  the  men  surroundings  that 
were  clean  physically  and  spiritually. 
With  the  present  federal  laws  for  the  pro- 
tection of  seamen  the  condition  in  the 
sixties  can  hardly  be  appreciated. 

Where  Fulton  had  built  his  first  steam- 
boat fifty  years  before  huge  yellow  dry- 
docks  now   rose.     Additional  land  had 
been  gained  so  that  Water,  Front 
and  South  Streets  grew  out  of  the 
river.     All  along  the  river  front 
sailing  vessels  pushed  their  bow- 
sprits and  gilded  figureheads 
far  over  the  streets  almost 
into  the  windows  of  the  sail- 
lofts  that  were  numerous  along 
South  Street. 

For   these  men  then  the 

so 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


Presbytery  of  New  York  on  December 
29,  1864,  at  52  Market  Street,  organ- 
ized the  Presbyterian  Church  of  the  Sea 
and  Land,  with  thirty-two  members. 
Dr.  Phillips,  Rev.  Rice  and  Rev.  A.  E. 
Campbell,  and  Elders  A.  B.  Conger  and 
A.  B.  Belknapp,  were  Presbytery's  Com- 
mittee, and  John  Simmons  and  John  H. 
Cassidy  were  the  first  elders. 

Rev.  Alexander  McGlashan  was  in- 
stalled as  pastor,  February  2,  1865,  serv-'  52  Market 
ing  for  a  little  more  than  a  year.  Ill  health  Street 
was  the  reason  for  his  leaving.  He  died 
in  1867.  The  deacons  were  Henry  H. 
Smith  and  Henry  Harrison;  also  Philip 
Halle,  who  served  for  only  a  short  time. 

On  December  26,  1865,  the 
following  trustees  were 
chosen:  John  H.  Cas- 
sidy, John  Simmons, 
Henry  H.  Smith,  Henry 
Harrison,  David  Robb, 
John  Neal,  and  Jas.  Mc- 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


Hanson  K. 
Corning 


Glashan.  At  this  time  there  were  74  mem- 
bers and  the  year's  receipts  were  $2,- 
372.67. 

The  Sunday  school  was  organized 
January  1,  1865,  25  being  present,  soon 
growing  to  80.  It  had  a  library  of  400 
volumes,  costing  $122.25.  John  H.  Cas- 
sidy  was  superintendent  and  T.  M.  May 
secretary.  Wm.  McCracken  was  presi- 
dent of  the  Temperance  Meeting  and 
Joseph  W.  Cassidy  president  of  the  Band 
of  Hope. 

But  the  man  that  was  most  prominent 
at  this  time  in  the  church's  history  is 
never  mentioned  in  the  official  records. 
Hanson   K.   Corning  was  a  shipping 
merchant,  who  knew  from  his 
own  business  connections  the 
helpless  condition  of  seamen 
\  when  in  port. 
J.^     He  was  bom  in   1810  in 
Hartford.   The  Comings  con- 
ducted a  large  South  Amer- 

52 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

ican  import  business,  with  offices  at  74 
South  Street.  Three  generations  were  ac- 
tive in  it. 

Hanson  K.  Corning  Hved  in  Brazil  for 
a  few  years,  paying  special  attention  to 
the  rubber  business  and  also  acting  as 
United  States  Consul. 

On  his  return  to  the  United  States  he 
became  a  member  of  the  firm,  and  the 
business  prospered  greatly.  Altho  Mr. 
Corning  in  later  life  became  an  invalid,  he 
went  to  his  South  Street  office  until  1860. 
Thereafter  he  gave  his  time  completely  to 
religious  and  philanthropic  work. 

When,  in  the  early  sixties,  the  decline 
of  the  Market  Street  church  became  evi- 
dent, Mr.  Corning  conceived  the  idea  of 
making  it  a  sailors'  church. 

He  entered  into  negotiations  with  the 
consistory  and  on  May  1,  1866,  he  became 
owner  of  the  property,  paying  $36,500 
for  it.  The  Church  of  the  Sea  and  Land 
moved  into  the  building  about  this  time. 

53 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

The  congregation  occupied  the  premises 
rent  free,  and  in  October,  1868,  the  prop- 
erty was  transferred  to  the  Presbytery  of 
New  York,  to  insure  greater  permanence. 
Mr.  Corning  sold  it  for  $25,000,  which 
meant  a  gift  of  some  $10,000  from  him, 
the  church  itself  giving  about  $1,500. 
James  Lenox  contributed  $1,000. 

The  deed  was  a  peculiar  one,  making 
the  Church  of  the  Sea  and  Land  a  third 
party,  and  giving  it  the  right  of  occupancy 
as  long  as  it  was  in  ecclesiastical  connec- 
tion with  the  Presbytery,  "or  until  in  the 
judgment  and  by  vote  of  three- fourths  of 
the  members  present  at  any  regular  meet- 
ing of  the  Presbytery  it  shall  be  decided 
to  be  no  longer  expedient  to  continue  or 
sustain  religious  services  or  missionary 
work  in  that  church  or  locality." 

It  was  also  stated  in  the  deed  that  all 
seats  should  be  free,  whereas  in  the 
Dutch  church  the  pews  were  private 
property  except  that   one-tenth   of  the 

54 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

pews  were  to  "be  free  forever  for  the  use 
of  the  poor  and  of  strangers,"  and  such 
pews  were  marked  on  the  doors  as  free. 

This  is  why  the  new  church  boldly 
painted  "seats  free"  over  the  doorway. 

Mr.  Corning  was  a  member  of  the 
Brick  Presbyterian  church,  to  which  he 
gave  considerable  sums.  He  contributed 
liberally  to  many  objects,  but  not  indis- 
criminately, and  the  mission  fields  in 
Brazil,  the  American  Bible  Society  and  • 
many  other  organizations  were  stronger 
for  his  munificence  and  wise  counsel. 
Mr.  Coming  died  April  22,  1878.  A  gift 
of  Mr.  Corning  that  the  church  still 
cherishes  is  its  pulpit  Bible. 

Mr.  Coming's  interest  in  the  church 
that  practically  was  founded  by  him  has 
never  ceased,  for  after  his  death  his 
daughter  and  son  again  became  inter- 
ested, and  the  third  generation  is  still 
represented  in  the  officers  of  the  church 
and  among  its  givers. 

55 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


Edward 
Hopper 


Rev.  S.  F.  Farmer  supplied  the  pulpit  for 
a  little  while  till  John  Lyle  was  installed 
June  25,  1867.    Next  January  the  session 
met  almost  continuously  for  the  recep- 
tion of  members.    The  records  show  that 
in  1867  and  1868  133  members  were  re- 
ceived after  examination  and  80  by  letter. 
In  November,  1868,  Mr.  Lyle  was  de- 
posed by  Presbytery,     He  died  in  1881. 
Edward  Hopper  came  in  1868  and  on 
June  29,  1869,  he  was  installed  as  pastor. 
Mr.  Hopper  was  born  on  February  17, 
1816,  graduating  from  Union  Seminary 
in  1842.    He  was  pastor  at  Greenville,  N. 
Y.,  eight  years,  at  Sag  Harbor,  L.   I., 
eleven  years.  After  a  short  time 
at  Plainfield,  N.  J.,  he  accept- 
ed the  call  to  New  York.  In 
1871  Lafayette  College  con- 
ferred the  degree  of  Doctor 
of  Divinity  on  him. 

Dr.  Hopper  wrote  a  num- 
ber   of    poems    that    were 
56 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

publisht  in  three  volumes.  During  his 
Sea  and  Land  ministry  he  was  brought 
in  contact  with  seamen  and  this  finds  ex- 
pression in  his  later  works  taking  char- 
acter from  life  on  the  sea.  Many  of  his 
verses  have  found  place  in  Christian 
hymnology,  notably  such  a  lyric  as  "Jesus, 
Savior,  pilot  me  over  life's  tempestuous 
sea,"  with  that  sweet  verse  "as  a  mother 
stills  her  child  Thou  canst  hush  the  ocean 
wild."  Another  hymn  was  "Wrecked ' 
and  struggling  in  mid  ocean,  clinging  to 
a  broken  spar." 

During  the  Civil  War  Dr.  Hopper  had 
written  some  stirring  verses,  one  on  The 
Old  Flag  being  especially  noted. 

He  was  of  fine  literary  taste  and  cul- 
ture, proud  of  his  Knickerbocker  an- 
cestry. Physically  as  well  as  intellectu- 
ally he  was  every  inch  a  man,  with  his 
bright  eye,  fine  face  and,  in  later  years,  a 
snow-white  beard.  Even  in  his  three 
score  years  and  ten  a  decline  was  hardly 

57 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

perceptible  until  in  the  fall  of  1887  the 
companion  of  his  hfetime  and  partner  of 
his  literary  pursuits  was  taken  from  him. 

On  April  22,  1888,  his  text  was: 
"Watch,  therefore,  for  ye  know  neither 
the  day  nor  the  hour  wherein  the  Son  of 
man  cometh."  Next  day  at  noon  his 
niece  found  him  in  his  study  chair,  his 
pencil  dropt  from  his  lifeless  hand.  Be- 
fore him  was  a  poem :  "Heaven." 

He  left  to  his  nieces  a  rather  large  es- 
tate, consisting  principally  of  railroad 
stocks,  with  legacies  for  home  and  for- 
eign missions.  His  investments  had  been 
made  on  the  advice  of  his  friend,  John 
Taylor  Johnson,  the  railroad  president, 
who  presented  to  the  church  the  com- 
munion service  that  was  in  use  for  over 
fifty  years. 


IV 

IN  Dr.  Hopper's  time  the  work  of  the 
church  for  seamen  reached  its  high- 
est development,  and  that  was  due 
to  Christian  A.  Borella.  He  was  a  mis- 
sionary of  the  American  Seamen's  Friend 
Society  for  twenty-one  years,  stationed 
at  the  Sailors'  Home  in  Cherry  Street, 
and  surely  a  man  of  God.  Borella  never 
came  to  church  or  prayer-meeting  alone : 
he  always  had  men  in  tow. 

There  was  an  upper  room  at  the  Sail- 
ors' Home  that  meant  much  to  many 
men,  and  there  Borella  did  a  work  that 
resulted  in  great  acquisitions  to  the 
church.  It  is  true  that  many  "going 
down  to  the  sea  in  ships"  were  never 
heard  of  again,  and  years  afterwards 
nearly  400  names  of  seamen  were  at  one 

59 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

time  removed  from  the  roll  by  the  ses- 
sion. But  again  and  again  word  came 
from  all  parts  of  the  earth  and  in  many 
languages  from  men  that  called  the 
church  blessed.  It  was  only  an  exempli- 
fication of  the  wide  scope  of  Sea  and 
Land  when  a  generation  later  one  of  its 
ministers  chanced  across  one  of  these 
men  in  Western  Australia. 

A  feature  of  the  prayer-meeting  in 
those  days  was  the  reading  of  these  sea- 
men's letters,  giving  account  of  them- 
selves to  Borella.  They  always  stirred 
the  man,  who  would  add  words  of  Chris- 
tian admonition  that  lacked  nothing  in 
definiteness. 

He  was  the  right  hand  of  Dr.  Hopper, 
re-wrote  records  and  generally  made  him- 
self useful. 

But  in  his  olden  days  he  became  rest- 
less and  as  no  mission  board  would  take 
a  man  of  sixty-four  years  he  went,  after 
Dr.  Hopper's  death,  to  Africa  at  his  own 
60 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

expense.  He  soon  attached  himself  to 
Bishop  William  Taylor  and  with  his  mas- 
ter's certificate  ran  the  missionary  boat 
Anne  Taylor  on  the  Congo. 

Bishop  Taylor  says  of  his  end:  "One 
Sunday  morning  we  walked  together  to 
a  preaching  service  at  Vivi  top.  Captain 
Borella  was  suddenly  taken  ill  and  on  my. 
return  there  Monday  morning  was  very 
low  with  fever.  On  August  12,  1891, 
he  fell  asleep  in  Jesus,  and  we  buried  him 
under  a  huge  baobab  tree  at  Vivi  top." 

Physically  he  was  stockily  built,  well 
knit  and  evidently  a  strong  man,  always 
neat,  but  exceedingly  plain  in  dress.  He 
was  born  in  Southern  Denmark,  of  Span-  Christian  A. 
ish  ancestry.  His  modest  fortune  he  had 
made  in  California  in  '49,  and  his  conver- 
sion was  under  Father  Taylor  when 
Borella  came  under  his  influence 
in  Boston.  It  was  Father  Tay- 
lor of  whom  Walt  Whitman 
said  that  he  was  "the  one  es- 


6i 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

sentially    perfect    orator"    he   had    ever 
heard. 

After  several  voyages  Borella  became 
"cold  and  a  backslider,"  and  an  eye  dis- 
ease nearly  blinded  him.  "The  Lord 
cured  my  blindness,  physical  and  spir- 
itual, and  I  promist  him  then  that  I  would 
serve  him  the  rest  of  my  life,"  and  he 
did  it  with  the  virility  and  sternness  of 
an  Old  Testament  prophet. 

Borella  was  succeeded  by  Captain  Wil- 
liam Dollar,  a  dear  old  saint,  who  was 
stationed  at  the  Sailors'  Home  for  twelve 
years. 

The  church's  work  in  these  earlier  days 
was  simple  enough,  prayer-meeting 
Thursdays,  then  Wednesdays,  and  tem- 
perance meeting  under  McClellan  and 
Campbell  on  Friday.  But  on  Sunday,  be- 
sides the  two  long  church  services  there 
was  Sunday  school,  morning  and  after- 
noon, and  young  people's  meeting  pre- 
ceding the  evening  service. 
62 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

When  the  saUing  vessels  were  still 
along  South  Street,  meetings  were  held 
on  ships  as  opportunity  offered. 

In  1882  the  interior  of  the  church  was 
papered  and  painted  by  Elder  B.  A,  Car- 
Ian  at  a  cost  of  less  than  $1,000.  New 
cushions,  carpets,  etc.,  brought  the  total 
up  to  $1,564. 

The  one  annual  event  was  the  Sunday 
school  excursion,  when  all  went  on  board 
a  barge,  which  was  towed  by  a  tug  to  a 
grove  on  the  sound  or  on  the  Hudson. 
Dancing  was  tabooed,  but  a  "melodeon" 
was  carted  to  the  dock  and  hymns  were 
sung.  The  tickets  were  fifty  cents  for 
adults,  but  Sunday  school  children  were 
free.  Robert  S.  Taylor,  veteran  secre- 
tary, was  chief  ticket  seller,  not  only 
on  the  dock  that  morning,  but  in  Wall 
Street  for  weeks  before.  The  president 
of  the  Temperance  Society  once  or  twice 
put  in  an  excursion  just  ahead  of  that  of 
the  Sunday  school,  and  there  was  danc- 

63 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

ing.    But  this  was  generally  disapproved. 

Miss  Fanny  Crosby  often  came  to  the 
Primary  in  those  days  and  many  of  her 
hymns  were  first  sung  there.  Mr.  Black- 
wood, her  attendant,  married  Miss  Dev- 
lin, the  teacher  of  the  class. 

In  those  days  Market  and  Henry 
Streets  had  many  two-story  and  attic 
houses  and  in  almost  every  one  of  those 
about  the  church  people  lived  who  went 
there. 

Teachers  whose  names  stand  out  about 
this  time  were:  Hans  Norsk,  James 
Brown,  Thomas  Miller,  William  Steven- 
son, Evan  Price,  James  Smith,  William 
Gibson,  Robert  Pierce,  Dr.  Theodore  A. 
Vanduzee,  Jesse  Povey,  Mrs.  B.  C.  Lef- 
ler,  Mrs.  S.  M.  Nelson. 

The  excursions  gave  rise  to  a  commit- 
tee of  young  people  who  started  to  pro- 
vide amusements  other  than  dancing: 
swings,  songs,  and  so  on.  There  came 
also  an  "executive  committee"  that  asked 

64 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

many  questions,  and  Dr.  Hopper,  in  a 
courteous  and  kindly  way  answered  them 
in  full :  that  was  the  first  report  made  to 
the  congregation.  Till  then  the  annual 
meeting  had  consisted  of  reading  the 
names  of  the  subscribers  who  had  con- 
tributed by  means  of  the  monthly  en- 
velopes, and  the  amoimts  they  gave. 

But  Charles  J.  Lemaire  could  not  un- 
derstand why  this  excursion  amuse- 
ment committee  should  not  become  a 
permanent  organization  with  literary 
purposes.  Thus  began  the  Lylian  Asso- 
ciation that  for  twenty  years  was  a  main- 
stay of  the  church  and  in  its  days  of  dire 
necessity  was  a  vital  factor.  From  it 
came  the  yoimg  men  that  in  later  years 
were  trustees,  and  it  was  the  opening 
wedge  that  was  to  transform  the  whole 
church  work. 

When  two  of  the  young  men  came  to 
the  trustees  for  permission  for  a  literary 
society  to  meet  weekly,  it  was  questioned 

6s 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

whether  anything  but  religious  meetings 
might  be  held  in  the  building.  But  after 
serious  reflection  the  two  were  made  per- 
sonally responsible  for  good  order,  pro- 
vided always  meetings  were  opened  and 
closed  with  prayer. 

In  a  day  when  the  young  people  had 
no  outlet  whatever  for  their  active  spirits 
the  Lylian  Association  became  a  training 
school  for  the  church.  The  debates  of 
that  day  will  never  be  forgotten,  notably 
when  the  Lylians  wrested  the  laurel 
wreath  from  the  Goldeys  at  Clarendon 
Hall,  and  that  other  one,  when  Dr. 
Hopper  suddenly  appeared  at  a  meeting 
and  after  an  impromptu  debate  "showing 
every  evidence  of  being  well  prepared," 
as  he  said,  some  consciences  were  ill  at 
ease. 

Then  there  was  the  Gossip's  Journal, 
provoking  endless  parliamentary  wran- 
gles, and  perhaps  helping  to  develop  later 
on    an    editor.      Memorable    were    the 
66 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

Young  People's  Conventions  of  1886  and 
1887,  and  Lylians  will  never  forget  the 
patriot  Kromm,  Spoopendyke  Shreve, 
the  poet  laureate  and  a  dozen  others. 
The  Fourth  of  July  picnics  at  Pamrapo 
and  Nyack  are  happy  memories  for 
many. 

Like  the  old  Market  Street  stoop  witlii 
its  fancy  iron  posts  and  rails  the  Lylian 
Association  has  seen  its  day,  but  it  amply 
justified  its  existence. 

When  one  Monday  evening  Mr.  Pink- 
ham,  the  church  treasurer,  announced  to 
the  Lylians  the  sudden  death  of  Dr.  Hop- 
per, there  was  consternation  and  ad- 
journment. 

Andrew  Beattie,  a  theological  student, 
had  been  called  before  this  as  co-pastor. 
He  was  installed  as  pastor  May  29,  1888, 
having  been  persuaded  to  give  up  his  in- 
tention of  going  to  the  foreign  field.  Mr. 
Beattie  lived  down  town,  and  his  bachelor 
apartments  on  East  Broadway  were  a 

67 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


Andrew 
Beattie 


gathering  place  for  the  young  men,  many 
of  whom  were  in  his  Sunday  school  class. 
He  with  others  worked  out  the  system  of 
quarterly  written  examination  and  grad- 
ing that  since  1888  have  been  uninter- 
ruptedly in  force  in  the  Sunday  school, 
long  before  other  schools  thought  of  such 
things. 

The  school  was  flourishing  with  many 
young  people  as  officers  and  teachers,  all 
the  activities  of  the  church  being  cen- 
tered on  its  nursery.  The  records  were 
systematized,  and  articles  in  the  church 
papers  printed  on  the  system,  electric 
bells  were  installed,  fire  drills  were  in- 
augurated, discipline  was  rigid,  visiting 
by  teachers  and  districts  was  carefully 
regulated,  the  library  given  attention. 
Mr.  Beattie  returned  to  his  first  love, 
resigning  after  eight  months  to 
go  to  the  foreign  mission 
field.  After  years  of  greatest 
usefulness  in  Canton,  China, 

jj  68 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

his  health  necessitated  his  return.  Dr. 
Beattie  is  with  his  family  in  California, 
where  he  is  in  charge  of  a  Presbyterian 
orphanage. 


Sunday 
School 
Room  of 
01d6i 


REVEREND  ALEXANDER  W. 
SPROULL  followed  Mr.  Beattie 
on  January  5,  1890,  serving  for 
three  years.  He  had  been  Synodical 
Missionary  in  Florida.  After  leaving 
Sea  and  Land  he  was  incapacitated  for 
further  active  service.  He  died  Decem- 
ber 13,  1912. 

Another  breach  was  made  in  the  con- 
servatism of  the  old  church  when  one   ^igx.  w. 
of  the  young  trustees  proposed  to  let  the    SprouU 
New  York  Kindergarten  Asso- 
ciation use  the  room  rent  free 
for  a  kindergarten,  then  new 
in    the    neighborhood.      The 
older,    wiser    heads    were 
gravely    shaken    at    this    re- 
markable   innovation,    but   it 

71 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


Col.  Robert 
G.  Shaw 


came  on  March  31,  1892,  and  with  it  the 
beloved  Anna  E.  Crawford  as  teacher. 
The  fairy  godmother  who  maintained  it 
was  Mrs.  Francis  G.   Shaw,  giving  the 
kindergarten  the  name  of  her  son,  Robert 
Gould  Shaw.     It  was  a  happy  combina- 
tion this,  and  the  little  boys  became  strong 
men  in  the  memory  of  the  young  Colonel 
who  gave  his  life  at  Fort  Wagner  at  the 
head   of   the   First    Colored    Regiment. 
They  buried  him  disdainfully  "with  his 
niggers,"  but  Robert  Gould  Shaw  lived 
again  in  the  lives  of  little  boys  trained  to 
sacrifice  at  Sea  and  Land.     Nor  will  the 
Colonel's     sister    be     forgotten:      Mrs. 
Charles   Russell  Lowell,  who  gave  her 
young  husband  in  the  same  cause  and 
thereafter  lived  a  life  that  merited  Wil- 
liam   Rhinelander    Stewart    calling    her 
"one  of  the  most  useful  and  remarkable 
women  of  the  Nineteenth  Century."  Her 
spirit  of  service  was  renewed  in  the 
little  girls  of  the  Shaw  Kinder- 
72 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

garten.  The  beautiful  bas  relief  by  St. 
Gaudens  on  Boston  Common  is  less  of  a 
memorial  than  the  kindergarten  in  Henry 
Street. 

Mrs.  Shaw  died  December  29,  1902, 
having  supported  the  kindergarten  for 
eleven  years. 

Another  departure  was  an  open  air 
meeting  establisht  by  Mr.  Sproull,  gath- 
ering at  the  church  door  Sunday  after- 
noons.    First  things  are  hard  things. 

But  a  storm  was  brewing.  Uptown 
churches  needed  money,  their  pastors 
were  influential  in  the  denomination  and 
it  seemed  to  many  good  business  to  dis- 
pose of  the  Market  Street  church. 


Shaw 

Memorial 

Kindergarten 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

So,  on  March  13,  1893,  Presbytery 
ordered  the  church  sold,  declaring,  to 
comply  with  the  Corning  deed,  that  "mis- 
sionary work  in  the  church  or  in  that 
locality  was  no  longer  expedient."  The 
church  pointed  out  that  29  of  the  57 
churches  in  New  York  Presbytery  had 
received  less  members  during  the  preced- 
ing year,  16  churches  had  fewer  mem- 
bers, 14  churches  raised  less  money,  and 
that  6  churches  made  a  worse  showing 
than  Sea  and  Land  in  every  single  item 
reported  on.  There  were  then  only  4 
Protestant  churches  for  60,000  people. 
The  battle  was  on,  and  the  bitterness 
of  the  Briggs  trial  had  not  yet  sub- 
sided,— the  same  Briggs  who  as  a 
young  man  belonged  to  Market  Street 
church. 

Mr.  Sproull's  small  salary  allowance 
was  discontinued  and  he  was  forced  to 
resign,  July  1,  1893.  Then  came  hard 
times,  no  friends,  no  minister,  no  funds. 

74 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

But  when  the  tale  of  bricks  was  doubled 
Moses  came. 

It  was  in  the  shape  of  a  legacy  from 
Borella.  That  saint  on  his  death  in 
Africa  had  left  his  estate  in  America  to 
the  Church  of  the  Sea  and  Land  and  the 
American  Seamen's  Friend  Society 
jointly.  If  Borella  had  lived  he  could 
not  have  arranged  it  for  a  better  time. 

Meanwhile  by  an  accident  the  press  of 
the  city  gained  the  whole  story  from 
the  church's  viewpoint,  and  thereafter  all 
the  news  reports  were  tinged  favorably 
to  the  down-town  church  that  insisted  on 
living.  There  were  illustrated  articles 
on  the  church's  history,  caustic  editorial 
comments,  letters  from  correspondents, 
and  everybody  talked  about  the  church. 
The  ash  barrels  and  the  church  doors 
had  bills  posted  on  them  announcing  that 
the  Church  of  the  Sea  and  Land  would  be 
sold  at  auction  on  April  19,  1893.  The 
property,  however,  was  withdrawn  when 

75 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

the  best  offer  was  $15,000  short  of  what 
was  expected.    There  was  a  lull. 

In  the  spring  of  1894  it  became  neces- 
sary to  devise  some  means  of  helping  the 
New  York  Presbyterian  Church  on  127th 
Street,  which  was  buried  by  mortgages 
amounting  to  $118,000,  about  to  be  fore- 
closed. Sea  and  Land  was  to  furnish 
part  of  this  and  a  mortgage  was  sug- 
gested. The  church  trustees  opposed  this 
successfully,  altho  at  first  it  was  sup- 
posed their  consent  was  not  required. 
Without  the  knowledge  of  the  church  a 
sale  was  then  again  ordered  January  18, 
1895. 

Preceding  this,  beginning  October  1, 
1894,  the  church  had  "affiliated"  with  the 
Madison  Square  Presbyterian  church. 
As  Presbytery  had  formally  approved 
this  the  Madison  Square  church  remon- 
strated vigorously  thru  Dr.  Parkhurst, 
but  feeling  that  Presbytery's  action  could 
not  be   relied  on  the   Madison   Square 

76 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

church  withdrew  at  the  expiration  of  its 
one  year  of  affiliation. 

Committees   of   prominent   clergymen 
visited  the  church  and  were  "warmly" 
welcomed.     It  was  suggested  that  Sea 
and  Land  unite  with  other  churches,  but 
it  is  a  singular  fact  that,  as  when  the 
Reformed  church  disbanded,  so  now,  not' 
a  single  church  is  in  existence  that  was 
then  mentioned  for  a  refuge.    A  case  in 
point  is  the  Allen   Street   Presbyterian 
church.      They  had  sold  their  building 
near  Grand  Street  and  for  a  time  wor- 
shipt  in  the  Market  Street  church.     But 
in    spite    of    earnest    solicitation    they 
erected  an  unfortunate  structure  in  an 
unfortunate  location  in  Forsyth  Street. 
After  a  short  existence  there  they  united 
with  the  Fourteenth  Street  church,  and 
that  church  is  no  more! 

Even    the    strong    Madison    Square 
church  no  longer  preserves  its  identity. 

77 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


Old 

Church 
Flag 


Meanwhile  work  went  on,  at  first  in 
desultory  fashion,  two  or  three  times  the 
young  men  had  to  conduct  services.  But 
thru  it  all  Dr.  A.  F.  Schauffler,  of  the 
New  York  City  Mission  Society,  was  the 
church's  consistent  friend.  His  order  to 
the  city  missionaries  at  the  church  to  stay 
until  the  doors  were  shut  was  the  one 
heartening  feature  of  a  time  when  the 
officers  ordered  the  blue  church  flag 
raised  and  "no  one  from  Sea  and  Land 
will  ever  take  it  down." 

The  Women's  Branch  always  ably 
seconded  these  efforts  under  Mrs.  Lucy 
S.  Bainbridge  and  later  Miss  Edith  N. 
White. 

Instead  of  slowly  dying  out  the  work 
of  the  church  gained  momentum  from 
day  to  day :  Lodging  house  meetings, 
Sunday  afternoon  teas,  free  concerts,  ad- 
dresses by  Gompers,  McGlynn,  Henry 
George,  Parkhurst  and  others,  sermons 
"against  thugs  in  pohtics."  and  so  on. 

78 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

A  permanent  accomplishment  of  the 
nine  months'  intense  regime  of  Alex- 
ander F.  Irvine  was  the  starting  of  The 
Sea  and  Land  Monthly,  the  first  number 
of  which  appeared  in  October,  1893. 
With  characteristic  impetuosity  Mr.  Ir- 
vine launched  it,  and  it  has  been  afloat 
for  more  than  a  quarter  century. 

The  Monthly  has  been  a  great  store- 
house: not  only  did  it  give  from  month 
to  month  the  happenings  at  the  church, 
but  it  brought  to  later  generations  an  ap- 
preciation of  the  goodly  heritage  of  years 
that  had  gone  before. 

The  vital  events  in  the  congregation's 
history  were  recorded,  but  so  was  the 
personal  history  of  its  people.  The  com- 
ing of  little  messengers  to  the  homes, 
their  baptism,  their  reception  into  the 
church,  their  marriage,  their  death.  Then 
began  another  cycle  like  unto  the  first. 

And  the  Monthly  kept  alive  the  inter- 
est of  many  a  Sea  and  Lander  who  was 

79 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

adrift.  It  gave  account  of  its  steward- 
ship to  the  friends  of  the  church  who 
supported  its  work.  Few  churches  ever 
publish  with  such  detail  the  annual  re- 
ports as  does  Sea  and  Land. 

Many  are  the  kind  words  from  near 
and  far  that  have  been  said  about  the 
Sea  and  Land  Monthly. 


80 


VI 


BUT  if  the  Madison  Square  church 
withdrew  officially  it  left  behind 
more  than  the  old  church  ever  ex- 
pected. It  was  a  young  man  who,  in* 
October,  1894,  reported  to  the  Sunday 
school  superintendent  as  coming  from 
Madison  Square.  He  was  John  Hopkins 
Denison,  a  grandson  of  Mark  Hopkins, 
of  fine  New  England  stock.  He  had 
come  to  New  York  to  become  Dr.  Park- 
hurst's  assistant  when  he  was  making  war   J°   , . 

Hopkins 

on  Tammany.    Those  were  the  days  of   Denisop 
the    City   Vigilance   League,    when    un- 
savory revelations  were  necessary  to  ef- 
fect a  change  in  city  government 
There    was    a    meeting    which 
crowded  the  old  church  to  the 
second  galleries  when  Dr.  Park- 
8i 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

hurst  spoke.  It  was  a  noble  battle  and  not 
without  its  dangers. 

So  when  the  Madison  Square  church 
went,  Mr.  Denison  staid,  and  he  was  a 
prodigious  worker.  The  quarters  in  the 
tower  were  enlarged  for  there  were  many 
visitors  who  bunked  there. 

Mr.  Denison  set  out  to  prove  the  right 
of  the  church  to  existence  and  he  did  it. 
He  did  more:  he  brought  no  end  of 
friends  that  remained  to  the  church.  The 
thought  of  Cuyler  to  establish  a  mission. 


The 

Tower 

Study 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


of  Parkhurst  to  affiliate  the  church  with 
a  stronger  one,  was  developed  under 
Denison  into  an  organization  amply  sup- 
ported by  the  whole  church,  working  out 
by  itself  its  own  local  problems.  It  was 
no  longer  a  self-evident  proposition  that 
a  church  not  able  to  support  itself  must 

go-  '  jj^^^ 

One  of  the  early  steps  was  the  estab-    gtreet^"'^^ 
lishment   of   a   church 
house    at    52     Henry 
Street.      Mr.    Denison 
said:    "It  was  not  an 
institution — it  was  not 
even  a  settlement;    it 
was    simply    a    house 
where    people    lived. 
The   time   is   gone  by 
for  men  and  women  to 
come  down  as  out- 
siders and  pry  into 
the  homes   of   pov- 
erty   and    sin,    and 

83 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


then  return  to  their  own  life  far  away. 
One  must  Hve  in  a  community,  one  must 
be  a  neighbor." 

Mr.  John  Crosby  Brown  was  the  mu- 
nificent friend  who  made  the  house  pos- 
sible, Miss  Mae  M.  Brown  being  a  deeply 
interested  resident  there.  Mrs.  Rockwell 
was  in  charge,  then  Miss  Eleanor  J. 
Crawford.  It  was  the  center  for  all 
social  activities,  tastefully  fitted  up,  the 
ladies  working  at  the  church  living  on 
the  upper  floors.  In  the  same  house  Sea 
and  Land  people  had  lived  for  many 
years:  the  Stevensons,  the  Boyces,  Miss 
McGarry. 

In  1906  the  building  was  torn  down 
and  other  arrangements  had  to  be  made. 
For  a  time  apartments  were  occupied  at 
138  Henry  Street  and  51  Market  Street. 
The  Fresh  Air  Work, 
too,  was  put  on  a  perma- 
nent basis.  Besides  mak- 
ing   the    church 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

the  local  station  for  the  Tribune  Fresh 
Air  Fund,  houses  were  rented  at  Rocka- 
way  for  five  years,  later  at  Huntington, 
until  in  a  more  recent  time  Staten  Island 
property  was  bought.  Later  years  saw 
an  extension  of  this  work  to  Schenec- 
tady, where  Dr.  Bigelow  of  blessed  mem- 
ory headed  it. 

Under  the  auspices  of  William  W. 
Seymour, — of  course  he  was  not  mayor 
of  Tacoma  then, — the  first  boys'  camp 
was  establisht  at  North  Hero,  Vt.,  and  is 
still  a  glorious  memory.  The  girls  were 
welcomed  at  Litchfield  and  Saybrook. 

Not  only  did  money  flow  in  readily, 
but  it  was  quite  the  thing  for  young  min- 
isters and  theological  students  to  spend 
a  year,  a  summer  or  a  winter  at  Sea  and 
Land,  and  they  did  not  study  books: 
they  worked  on  men  and  women  at  all 
hours.  If  some  wretch  got  into  trouble 
some  one  to  whom  he  was  assigned  had 
not  been  vigilant  enough.  Before  Hoover 

8s 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

made  a  world  reputation  for  himself, 
Denison  studied  food  economics,  and  he 
proved  it  by  having  the  group  live  on  a 
minimum  allov/ance.  Then  he  preached 
on  what  was  economical  living. 

The  most  prominent  men  spoke  in 
the  church:  Dr.  Paton  from  the  New 
Hebrides;  Dr.  Grenfell  from  Labra- 
dor, Dr.  Van  Dyke  and  a  hundred 
others. 

University  extension  ideas  were  antici- 
pated in  courses  of  study,  the  men  of  the 
church  were  put  to  work  writing  inde- 
pendent Sunday  school  lessons,  the  teach- 
ers had  pedagogical  talks  and  studied 
Biblical  masterpieces.  The  girls  were 
taken  to  sing  in  Rutgers  Square  and  it 
was  not  always  safe  to  do  it  either.  The 
Upper  Room  was  establisht  in  Rutgers 
Street,  then  the  Lighthouse  in  Water 
Street,  a  fine  stereopticon  was  in  frequent 
use.  The  Men's  Club,  under  George  M. 
Bailey,  prospered  like  the  green  bay 
86 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

tree,  drawing  men  of  all  classes.  A  de- 
sign for  a  church  flag  was  adopted. 
Sports  were  encouraged.  Numerous 
clubs  were  organized,  among  them  the 
Good  Time  Club,  also  the  Penny  Provi- 
dent and  the  Helping  Hand.  Nursing 
was  taken  up;  sewing  and  cooking 
classes,  model  flats  and  cottage  meetings, 
started.  Magazine  and  newspaper  ar- 
ticles commented  on  unusual  sermons, 
such  as  the  one  on  the  balloons.  Ad- 
dresses at  Northfield,  Silver  Bay  and 
other  places  called  attention  to  the 
church's  work  in  ever-widening  circles. 
Hamilton  House  came  into  being,  but 
without  organic  connection  with  the 
church. 

In    short,    Mr.    Denison's    compelling  ch^rch 
personality   and   enormous   capacity   for  F'^s 
work  put  others  to  work,  so  that  in  the 
summer   of    1895    9,546   persons    were 
brought     together     in     the     old 
church  in  five  weeks. 

87 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

So  men  and  women  came  and  went, 
some  of  them  wrote  books  and  magazine 
articles  about  the  work  with  more  or  less 
accuracy.  Mr.  Denison's  own  poems 
were  more  appreciated  by  those  who 
knew. 

The  force  of  it  all  was  irresistible,  and 
so  the  last  trace  of  opposition  in  Presby- 
tery and  elsewhere  disappeared.  On  No- 
vember 11,  1895,  the  sale  of  the  property 
was  called  off,  and  $2,000  a  year  paid  for 
three  years.  Ever  since  Presbyterians 
and  others  have  been  proud  of  the  outpost 
the  united  church  is  maintaining  at  Mar- 
ket and  Henry  Streets.  It  is  a  happy 
memory  that  all  of  the  men  who  in  Pres- 
bytery supported  sale  resolutions  became 
staunch  friends  of  the  church. 

Mr.  Denison  was  not  ordained  when 
first  he  came  to  Market  Street,  but  this 
was  done  later  at  Williamstown  in  the 
College  Chapel.  On  entering  New  York 
Presbytery  his  installation  as  regular  pas- 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Parm 

tor  of  the  Church  of  the  Sea  and  Land 
was  effected  March  23,  1899. 

In  1894  Mrs.  Shaw  spent  considerable 
money  fixing  up  the  lecture  room  and  in 
1896  a  new  roof  was  put  on  the  church 
at  an  expense  of  $600. 

Mr.  Denison  made  a  tour  of  the  world, 
being  absent  from  November,  1900,  to 
October,  1901. 

Among  the  men  working  under  Mr. 
Denison  was  Horace  Day,  a  young  theo- 
logical student  who  gave  his  life  after  a 
brief  but  intense  period  of  work. 

In  Mr.  Denison's  time,  too,  falls  the 
best  work  of  Mrs.  Eliza  E.  Rockwell. 
She  was  indefatigable,  beloved  of  many, 
none  too  far  gone  to  merit  her  attention, 
nothing  too  hard  to  do.  She,  too,  laid 
down  her  life  as  a  sacrifice.  Even  Mr. 
Denison's  book,  "Beside  the  Bowery," 
insufficiently  tells  the  full  measure  of  her 
devotion  for  the  thirteen  years  she  was 
at  Sea  and  Land.     Her  last  message  to 

89 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

the  trustees  was :  "I  died  in  harness."  It 
was  on  March  14,  1908. 

One  of  the  men  of  that  day  was  Ed- 
ward DowHng.  As  a  tinker  he  wandered 
about  distributing  tracts,  speaking  the 
word  in  truth,  and  returning  during  the 
winter  to  be  factotum  in  the  tower.  In 
that  kindly  old  soul  few  guessed  the  old 
fighter  in  India.  Did  he  really  know  the 
place  where  priceless  treasures  were  hid 
beside  an  old  idol  ? 

One  of  the  men  in  whom  united  the 
Sea  and  Land  of  the  staid  old  ways  and 
the  boundless  energy  of  later  days  was 
John  Denham.  He  lived  to  see  the  day 
when  the  boy  in  the  primary  of  the  school 
of  which  he  was  superintendent  for  years 
sat  beside  him  in  the  session.  He  was  the 
living  embodiment  of  that  perennial  spirit 
in  the  Church  of  Christ  which  ever  ad- 
justs itself  to  new  conditions  and  never 
loses  sight  of  its  main  object. 

Mr,  Denham's  strong  point  was  with 
90 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


the  older  people.  It  was  characteristic  to 
have  him  read  his  Bible,  quietly  take  up 
his  hat  nearby  and  pay  a  visit. 

When  on  February  4,  1910,  John  Den- 
ham  went  home  to  the  Master  whom  he 
had  served  thru  a  long  life  the  younger 
men  first  felt  the  burden  of  things:  the 
senior  elder  was  no  more.  He  had  held 
open  the  door  of  the  church  for  many  a 
one  and  they  had  entered  in. 

Mr.  Denison  left  the  church  December 
31,  1902,  to  take  up  work  in  Boston.  It 
was  a  great  loss,  but  as  one  of  the  officers 
said :  "What  shall  we  do  when  Mr.  Deni- 
son leaves  ?    Why,  what  we  always  do  at 


John 
Denham 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

Sea  and  Land:  the  best  we  know 
how." 

Dr.  William  Adams  Brown  said: 
"None  know  better  than  the  people  of 
Sea  and  Land  how  costly  the  contribu- 
tion which  they  have  been  called  to  make 
to  the  spiritual  welfare  of  a  sister  city." 

It  was  H.  Roswell  Bates,  who,  in  the 
Spring  Street  Presbyterian  church, 
worked  out  Mr.  Denison's  plans,  as  he 
had  helped  to  formulate  them  at  the  old 
Market  Street  church  while  he  was  resi- 
dent there. 


92 


VII 

MR.  DENISON  was  succeeded  by 
his  assistant,  William  Raymond 
Jelliffe.  They  had  been  close 
friends,  Mr.  Jelliffe  leaving  business  and 
entering  the  ministry  while  at  Sea  and 
Land.  He  was  ordained  June  7,  1900, 
having  been  at  the  church  since  May, 
1893.  He  left  December  31,  1905,  to 
join  Mr.  Denison  in  Boston,  and  later 
came  to  the  Madison  Avenue  Presby- 
terian church  as  assistant.  Mr.  Jelliffe 
did  fundamental  work  with  the  Young 
People's  Society,  that  has  been  a  staunch 
support  of  the  church  ever  since. 

Rev.  Orrin  Giddings  Cocks  next 
headed  the  church's  work.  In  his  time 
the  financial  affairs  of  the  church  were 
further  strengthened  and  Mr.  Cocks  is 

93 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


Old  6i 
Henry 
Street 


Still  an  officer  of  the  church  which  he  has 
served  many  years. 

Following  the  custom,  Mr.  Cocks'  as- 
sistant, Rev.  Russell  Stanley  Gregory, 
next  directed  the  work,  being  ordained 
June  25,  1908,  and  taking  charge  at  the 
close  of  the  year.  He  was  at  the  church 
ten  years. 

In  1909  the  old  Consistory  Building 
was  torn  down.  It  held  precious  mem- 
ories for  many,  for  in  spite  of  its  limita- 
tions it  had  in  its  66  years  given  a  serv- 
ice that  had  included  about  everything 
one  could  imagine  connected  with 
church  work.  It  had  sheltered 
)p(\\n  Sunday  school,  Lylians,  in- 
numerable clubs,  a  kin- 
dergarten, not  to  speak 
of  the  earlier  days 
when  prayer-meetings, 
school,  temperance  and 
j,^  Young  Men's  Christian 
■^  Association   meetings 

94 


-       ® 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


Henry 
Street 


exerted  an  influence  that  went  out  far 
beyond  its  narrow  walls.  Even  the  stoop 
that  had  been  worn  by  many  feet,  some 
very  little,  had  caused  a  poet  to  sing.  It 
all  went. 

The  new  building  that  took  its  place 
was  splendidly  planned  by  Cady  &  Greg- 
ory. It  houses  every  activity  of  a  mod-- 
ern  church.  Club  rooms  for  girls,  boys  New  6i 
and  men,  gymnasium,  showers,  kitchens, 
kindergarten  rooms,  first-aid  rooms,  and 
quarters  for  the  ladies  in  residence. 
There  is  a  roof  garden  where  on  hot 
summer  evenings  services  and  other  gath- 
erings may  be  held. 

The  friends  of  the  ^-^ 
church  came  to  its  as- 
sistance in  such  munifi- 
cent manner  that  not  a 
single  contract  was  made 
until  subscriptions  cover- 
ing it  were  in  the  hands 
of   the   trustees,   and   in 

95 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


Oakwood 
House 
Before 
Renovation 


every  instance  the  actual  cash  was  in  the 
treasury  before  payments  came  due. 
When,  on  May  3,  1910,  the  building  was 
opened  with  appropriate  exercises  there 
was  a  balance  on  hand  more  than  suf- 
ficient for  all  claims.    It  cost  $43,000. 

Another  important  achievement  comes 
in  this  time.  For  years  the  church  had 
been  moving  about  in  rented  quarters  for 
fresh  air  work,  finally  landing  on  Staten 
Island  for  several  years.  An  option  had 
been  secured  on  a  house  with  over  eight 
acres  of  ground  at  Oakwood  Heights, 
and  after  a  year's  occupancy  that  proved 
its  availability,  it  was  bought  December 
30,  1912,  and  next  year  some  additional 
land  was  acquired,  including  ocean  front. 
The  funds  collected  were  sufficient  to  pay 
for  house  and  land,  as  well  as  a  new 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  farm 

bungalow  and  thoro  overhauling  of  the 
old  but  substantial  house.  As  in  the  case 
of  the  new  Sixty  One  all  moneys  needed 
were  in  hand  before  they  were  re- 
quired. On  every  occasion  the  people  of 
the  church  themselves  have  contributed 
amounts  that  were  sacrifices  considering 
their  limited  means. 

The  Fresh  Air  Fund  is  entirely  sep- 
arate from  the  General  Fund  of  the 
church,  and  each  year  the  expenses  are 
covered  by  special  subscriptions,  in  the 
collection  of  which  Mr.  George  C.  Fraser 


Oakwood 
House 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  farm 

and  Mrs.  Stephen  Baker  have  greatly 
interested  themselves  for  many  years.  In 
its  early  days  Miss  Helen  Gould  was  one 
of  the  good  friends  of  the  Fresh  Air 
Fund. 

Mr.  Gregory  left  December  1,  1913,  to 
go  to  East  Aurora,  N.  Y.,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Rev,  John  Ewing  Steen,  who 
had  been  ordained  at  the  church  on  Oc- 
tober 13,  1910. 

In  1917  Mr.  Steen  left  suddenly  for 
France  in  company  with  Mr.  Gregory  for 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  work 
with  the  army,  Mr.  Denison  being  there 
also. 

On  Mr.  Steen's  leaving  a  hurry  call 
brought  Mr.  Alfred  D.  Moore  back  once 
more,  under  whom  the  preparations  for 
the  church's  centennial  were  taken  up  in 
spite  of  stress  of  war  and  inadequate  as- 
sistance. 

98 


.PHHs 


Cooking 
School 
-     Kitchen 


99 


VIII 

WORK  among  the  cosmopolitan 
population  surrounding  the 
church  has  had  various  phases 
during  these  years. 

In  Dr.  Hopper's  time  the  Scandinavian 
element  among  Borella's  men  predomi- 
nated, and  there  was  also  a  small  Syrian 
group  at  the  church,  but  no  services  in 
any  language  but  English  were  main- 
tained. 

Later,  home  classes  in  German  for  the 
parents  of  many  of  the  children  were 
kept  up  for  a  number  of  years. 

Work  among  the  Jews  was  carried  on 
for  several  years  and  with  success,  if 
numbers  count.  But  the  methods  of  the 
leader  were  not  approved  and  so  the 
trustees  after  investigation  discontinued 

lOI 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  farm 

the  meetings.  Dr.  John  Hall,  of  the 
Fifth  Avenue  church,  then  most  promi- 
nent, earnestly  supported  the  man,  but 
in  afteryears  the  correctness  of  the  posi- 
tion taken  by  Market  Street  was  abun- 
dantly proven. 

Greek  services  were  supported  for 
quite  a  while,  and  since  1914  Russian  has 
been  maintained  under  Mr.  Nicholas 
Motin. 

Italian  services  have  been  of  all  these 
most  successful.  Rev.  Joseph  A.  Villelli, 
who  was  ordained  June  23,  1910,  has 
managed  these  with  tact  and  ability  "and 
the  Lord  added  to  the  church  daily  such 
as  should  be  saved."  A  separate  Sunday 
school  is  maintained,  but  with  the  idea 
of  gradual  amalgamation,  a  process  that 
is  also  proving  its  wisdom  along  other 
lines  of  the  church's  work. 

The  advice  and  active  support  of  men 
great  in  business  have  for  many  years 
been  at  the  disposal  of  the  church.    From 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

the  days  of  Matthias  Bruen,  the  merchant 
princes  of  this  great  city  have  been 
loyal  friends,  to  mention  only  Hanson 
K.  Corning,  father,  daughter,  grand- 
son, William  E.  Dodge — for  three  gen- 
erations,— and  John  Crosby  Brown  and 
his  family. 

Along  with  the  sainted  Denham  should 
be  mentioned  Benjamin  F.  Pinkham,  who 
for  twenty  years  acted  as  treasurer  of 
the  church.  He  was  a  quiet  man,  faith- 
ful in  every  duty,  averse  to  discussion. 
When  the  Lord  called  him  home  his  ac- 
counts were  in  perfect  order :  a  few  min- 
utes proved  his  balance,  a  space  was 
left  for  next  Sunday's  collection  in  his 
book. 

There  were  sweet  singers  in  Israel,  too, 
who  as  precentors  and  choir  leaders  have 
brought  out  the  best  there  was  of  tuneful 
harmony,  men  like  Henry  Carpenter, 
George  T.  Matthews,  Henry  Edwards, 
Allan  Robinson,  William  P.  Dunn. 
103 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

Thru  the  years  some  who  have  cared 
for  the  buildings  stood  out.  Charles 
Greer  in  the  early  days,  Evan  Price,  a 
sturdy  Welshman,  who  died  in  service, 
Christian  C.  Pedersen,  who  returned  to 
the  same  post  years  afterwards.  In  Mr. 
Denison's  time  David  J.  Ranney  served, 
attaining  later  to  the  dignity  of  city  mis- 
sionary and  an  autobiography.  John  A. 
Ross  will  be  remembered  for  his  om- 
niscience as  to  people  and  things  about 
the  old  church. 

So  the  old  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm  has 
stood  a  hundred  years.  From  its  vaulted 
dome  have  echoed  with  no  uncertain 
sound  the  voices  of  men  like  the  scholarly 
Milledoler  or  the  indefatigable  Denison, 
a  hundred  leaders  of  men  whose  words 


VERicaiK^Bncjiiteiw 


-:C^^-m 


ii'«Oii:i\»A-yn^ 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  farm 

and  works  have  swayed  the  hearts  of 
men. 

Down  the  broad  aisles  walked  the 
stately  Dutchman,  the  proud  Knicker- 
bocker, the  great  merchant,  the  stolid 
seaman,  the  busy  New  Yorker, — to  go 
out  and  by  deeds  of  victory  in  times  of 
peace  and  unflinching  loyalty  when  war's 
heavy  heels  trod  the  land  they  helped 
make  a  great  city  greater  and  a  mighty 
nation  mightier  still. 

Never  has  this  been  a  selfish,  self-con- 
tained organism,  but  a  living,  throbbing 
influence  that  went  out  beyond  the 
shadow  of  its  gray  walls,  prodigal  in  giv- 
ing to  others  the  good  things  of  the 
gospel  that  were  fostered  there.  Many  a 
church  at  home  and  abroad  has  cause  to 
bless  Market  Street  for  the  men  and 
women  that  she  brought  up  in  the  nur- 
ture and  admonition  of  the  Lord. 

"We  are  compassed  about  with  so 
great  a  cloud  of  witnesses,  a  great  multi- 

105 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

tude,  which  no  man  could  number."  All 
who  have  come  have  felt  the  spell  of  the 
place,  for  in  its  dim  seclusion  still  speak 
the  men  of  old.  It  is  peopled  with  a  long 
procession  of  saints  and  sages,  mariners 
and  merchants,  scholars  and  poets,  now 
of  the  church  triumphant:  memories 
that  consecrate  the  souls  of  men  and 
banish  ignoble  thoughts.  Here  is  an  altar 
sacred  to  hosts  of  men  and  women,  the 
holy  of  holies  of  their  noblest  aspira- 
tions. 

"Mark  well  her  bulwarks,  that  ye  may 
tell  it  to  the  generation  following."  As 
the  years  roll  on  children  and  children's 
children  will  arise  and  call  those  blessed 
whose  fidelity  thru  a  century  has  pre- 
served for  them  a  holy  place  where  "men 
still  renew  their  youth." 


io6 


^yi.Li'Miiin    m 


JESUS,  SAVIOR,  PILOT  ME 

Jesus,  Savior,  pilot  me, 
Over  life's  tempestuous  sea ; 
Unknown  waves  before  me  roll. 
Hiding  rock  and  treacherous  shoal ; 
Chart  and  compass  come  from  Thee, 
Jesus,  Savior,  pilot  me. 

When  the  apostle's  fragile  bark 
Struggled  with  the  billows  dark 
On  the  stormy  Galilee, 
Thou  didst  walk  upon  the  sea; 
And  when  they  beheld  Thy  form 
Safe  they  glided  thru  the  storm. 

The  the  sea  be  smooth  and  bright. 
Sparkling  with  the  stars  of  night. 
And  my  ship's  path  be  ablaze 
With  the  light  of  halcyon  days. 
Still  I  know  my  need  of  Thee ; 
Jesus,  Savior,  pilot  me. 

When  the  darkling  heavens  frown. 
And  the  wrathful  winds  come  down, 
And  the  fierce  waves,  tost  on  high, 
Lash  themselves  against  the  sky, 
Jesus,  Savior,  pilot  me. 
Over  life's  tempestuous  sea. 
109 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

As  a  mother  stills  her  child 
Thou  canst  hush  the  ocean  wild ; 
Boisterous  waves  obey  Thy  will 
When  Thou  sayest  to  them  "Be  still." 
Wondrous  Sovereign  of  the  sea, 
Jesus,  Savior,  pilot  me. 

When  at  last  I  near  the  shore, 
And  the  fearful  breakers  roar, 
'Twixt  me  and  the  peaceful  rest. 
Then,  while  leaning  on  Thy  breast, 
May  I  hear  Thee  say  to  me, 
"Fear  not,  I  will  pilot  thee." 

Edward  Hopper. 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 
THE  OLD  CHURCH 

The  old  church  long  has  stood, — 

For  ages  may  it  stand, 
Storehouse  of  heavenly  food 

And  lighthouse  of  the  land. 

Within  its  sacred  walls 

What  thousands,  now  asleep. 

Where  its  blest  shadow  falls 
Have  bowed  to  pray  and  weep ! 

Old  church,  with  doctrines  old 

As  God's  eternal  truth, 
Within  its  sacred  fold 

Men  still  renew  their  youth. 

Still  in  its  water  springs, 

Whose  streams  are  never  dry, 
Hope  bathes  her  drooping  wings. 

And  gathers  strength  to  fly. 

Still  from  its  tower  of  light 
The  radiant  truth  is  given 

To  cheer  men  thru  the  night 
And  guide  them  on  to  heaven. 

Edward  Hopper. 
Ill 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 
THE  OLD  FLAG 

Flag  of  the  brave  and  free ! 
Flag  of  our  Liberty ! 

Of  thee  we  sing; 
Flag  of  our  father's  pride, 
With  their  pure  heart's-blood  dyed, 
When  fighting  side  by  side, 

Our  pledge  we  bring. 

By  their  pure  martyr-blood. 
Poured  on  Columbia's  sod 

For  Liberty; 
By  all  their  deeds  of  old, 
Their  hunger,  thirst  and  cold, 
Their  battles  fierce  and  bold. 

We'll  stand  by  thee! 

Thy  'venging  stripes  shall  wave 
To  guard  the  homes  they  gave ; 

Thy  stars  shall  shine 
Upon  oppression's  night. 
To  give  the  patriot  light 
And  make  the  dark  world  bright 

With  hope  divine. 

We  pledge  our  heart  and  hand 
To  bear  thee  o'er  the  land 
That  God  made  free, — 
Till  all  its  vales  and  hills, 

112 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

Its  rivers  and  its  rills, — 
Till  the  whole  nation  thrills 
With  victory! 

Fear  not,  O  Ship  of  State ! 
Tho  pirates  with  fierce  hate 

May  cross  thy  sea: — 
Fear  not ;  at  thy  mast  head 
We've  nailed  the  blue,  white,  red 
Old  Flag !    Our  fathers  bled, 

And  so  can  we! 

We  love  each  tattered  rag 
Of  that  old  war-rent  flag 

Of  Liberty ! 
Flag  of  grtat  Washington ! 
Flag  of  brave  Anderson ! 
Flag  of  each  mother's  son 

Who  dares  be  free! 

O  God,  our  banner  save ! 
Make  it  for  ages  waves ! 

God  save  our  flag! 
Preserve  its  honor  pure, 
Unstained  may  it  endure, 
And  keep  our  freedom  sure; 

God  save  our  flag! 

Edward  Hopper. 
April,  1861. 

"3 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

RALLY  SONG 

The  Banner. 

Soldier,  hast  thou  halted, — 

Shrinking  from  the  foe, — 
Friendless,  beaten,  taunted, 

Helpless  in  thy  woe? 
Rally  to  the  standard ! 

God  shall  surely  win ! 
With  Him  thou  shall  triumph 

Over  Death  and  Sin ! 

The  White. 

Hast  thou  stumbled,  fallen? 

Have  they  passed  thee  by  ? 
In  the  filth,  despairing, 

Have  they  let  thee  lie? 
Up!  rise  up,  and  follow 

Yonder  folds  of  white ! 
Thou  shalt  share  their  brightness, 

Triumph  in  their  light! 

The  Beue. 

Dost  thou  feel  the  darkness 

Near  the  gates  of  death? 
Dost  thou  shrink  in  terror 

At  its  icy  breath? 
Lo!  the  flag  is  o'er  thee 

With  its  field  of  blue ! 
It  shall  guide  thee  homewards! 

Man,  thy  God  is  true ! 

114 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

The  Req  Cross. 

Is  the  conflict  bitter? 

Art  thou  faint ;  at  last, 
StruggHng,  panting,  straining. 

Foul  fiends  hold  thee  fast? 
Rouse  thyself  and  smite  them ! 

Raise  thy  standard  high! 
See,  its  cross  is  o'er  thee! 

Christ,  the  Lord,  is  nigh ! 

The  Spade  and  Anchor. 

Christian,  hast  thou  left  us — 

Left  the  battle  line? 
Idling,  straggling,  wand'ring, 

Heedless  of  the  sign? 
Hark!  the  trumpet  calls  thee! 

With  us  heart  and  hand 
Raise  the  Spade  and  Anchor ! 

Strike  for  Sea  and  Land! 

John  Hopkins  Denison. 


lis 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

THE  SHADOW  OF  THE  WALL 

Let  us  stay  a  while  and  listen  to  the  voices 

of  the  past, 
Softly  echoing,  vaguely  lingering,  e'er  they 

fade  away  at  last, 
Dreaming  in  a  dusky  comer  of  the  quaint, 

blue-panelled  pew 
While  the  massive  walls  of  granite  shut  the 

hurrying  crowds  from  view, 
And  the   street's  loud  clang  and   clatter, 

screams  of  rage  and  cries  of  pain, 
And   the   endless   plodding,   thudding,   of 

tired  feet  in  quest  of  gain 
Muffled  by  a  shroud  of  silence  soimds  a 

thousand  miles  away. 
And  the  past  is  hovering  round  us  with  its 

ghostly,  dim  array. 
Flitting  by  in   vague   procession,   up   the 

aisleway,  down  the  hall, 
While  we  lurk  here,  snugly  sheltered,  shad- 
owed by  the  massive  wall. 

Stately    dominies,    wig-powdered,    all    in 

gowns  of  silk  arrayed; 
Fairest  dames,  slim  and  high-waisted,  clad 

in  flowered,  quaint  brocade; 

ii6 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

Smart  young  captains,  bold  as  pirates,  with 
their  slaves  all  gaunt  and  black ; 

Stout  old  Dutchmen  and  their  ladies, 
gowned  as  in  a  miller's  sack — 

How  they  flit  past  in  the  gloaming,  thru 
the  huge,  high-vaulted  hall. 

While  we  lurk  here,  snugly  sheltered,  shad- 
owed by  the  massive  wall. 

Others    come,    some    wan    and    haggard, 

heavy-lined  and  weary-eyed; 
Some    with    faces    flushed    and    fevered, 

hearts  aflame  and  hands  fast  tied. 
Others    stand    with    frozen    heart-strings, 

bitter,  haughty,  desolate ; 
Some  creep  past  in  shame,  fresh  quivering 

from  some  thrust  of  scorn  or  hate. 
In  they  throng,  all  seeking  respite  from  the 

cruel  world's  maddening  call, 
Seeking  peace  in  the  dim  silence,  shadowed 

by  the  massive  wall. 

Other  voices,  sweet  and  child-like,  linger 

in  the  dusky  vault. 
Cries   of   babes   and   tiny  maidens,   sweet 

since  free  from  conscious  fault, 


"7 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

Here  they  gather,  brown  and  rosy,  golden- 
haired  and  crowned  with  jet, 

Glowing  cheeks  and  eyes  that  dance,  where 
innocence  and  joy  are  met. 

While  without  are  screams  and  curses, 
loathsome  vice  and  drunken  brawls, 

Here  within,  God's  flowers  are  sheltered  in 
the  shadow  of  these  walls. 

Still  they  stand,  a  hold  unshaken,  while  the 

turbid  stream  of  life 
Swirls   around   their   bulwarks,   brawling, 

black  with  sin,  with  sorrows  rife, 
While    still     from    the    dizzy     whirlpool 

drowning  souls  creep  to  the  door ; 
For  the  House  of  God,  unchanging,  stands 

now  and  forevermore. 
Struggling  in  life's  lonely  battle,  wounded, 

faint  with  many  falls 
We  have  found  a  mighty  fortress  in  the 

shadow  of  these  walls. 

John  Hopkins  Denison. 


ii8 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


MINISTERS 

Market  Street  Dutch  Reformed  Church 
1820-1835    William  McMurray,  D.D.  t  1835. 
1836-1853     Isaac  Ferris,  D.D.,  f  1873. 
1853-1860    Theodore     Ledyard     Cuyler,      D.D., 

t  1909. 
1861-1862    Chauncey  D.  Murray. 
1863-1865    Jacob  C.  Dutcher.  * 

Presbyterian  Church  of  the  Sea  and  Land 

1865-1866    Alexander   McGlashan,   D.D.,  t  1867. 

1867-1868    John  Lyle,  t  1881. 

1869-1888    Edward  Hopper,  D.D.,  f  1888. 

1888-1889  Andrew  Beattie,  Ph.D. ;  San  Anselmo, 
Cal. 

1890-1893    Alexander  W.   Sproull,  D.D.,  t  1912. 

1895-1902    John  Hopkins  Denison;    France. 

1903-1905  William  Raymond  Jelliffe;  New 
York. 

1906-1908    Orrin  Giddings  Cocks ;   New  York. 

1909-1913  Russell  Stanley  Gregory;  East  Au- 
rora, N.  Y. 

1914-1917    John  Ewing  Steen;   France. 
1910  Joseph  Anthony  Villelli. 

1917  Alfred  D.  Moore. 

1919  Russell  J.  Clinchy. 

no 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

STUDENTS  AT  MARKET  STREET 

CHURCH, 

ORDAINED  LATER 

"It  has  been  the  high  purpose  of  this  church 
to  train  a  type  of  minister  for  whom  the  hard 
places  of  Hfe  are  places  of  honor,  and  who  have 
been  going  out  from  there  spreading  the  con- 
tagion of  that  idea  in  the  ministry  of  to-day, 
making  this  church  a  great  training  school  for  a 
new  order  of  ministers." — George  Alexander, 
D.D. 

Thomas  B.  Anderson.     Tyler  W.  Dennett. 
W.  K.  Anderson.  Bayard  Dodge,  Syria. 

David  Baines-Griffiths  f.  Ray  C.  Donnan. 
H.  Roswell  Bates  t.  Charles  E.  Dunn. 

C.  G.  Bausmann  t-  William  P.  Dunn. 

Andrew    Beattie,    Cali-  Dwight  W.  Edwards, 
fornia.  Carl  Elmore,  France. 

Samuel  Boult  t-  Robert  Elmore. 

Russell  Bowie.  Chester  B.  Emerson. 

Herbert  H.  Brown.  Robert  Falconer. 

Edward  S.  Cobb,  Japan.  ^^^^^  pj^^^  Illinois. 
Orrin  G.  Cocks,  New     ^^^^^^  p^^j^^  Turkey. 
^°?'^     J-  John  H.  Freeman,  Laos. 

5'"7,/;  S^""^'*-  Herbert  Gallaudet. 


Robert  G.  Gottschall. 


Fred  W.  Cutler. 
Avac  Cutujian,  Syria. 
Gustave  J.  d'Anchise.      Walter  Grafton. 
William  O.  Davis.  Russell  S.  Gregory,  East 

J.   Hopkins   Denison,  Aurora,  N.  Y. 

France.  W.  R.  Grigg. 

1 20 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


Rowland    B.    Haynes, 

New  York. 
Lewis  B.  Hillis. 
George  Hughes. 
Alexander  F.  Irvine. 
W.    Raymond   Jelliffe, 

New  York. 
Olin  C.  Jones. 
Francis  W.  Lawson. 
E.  Trumbull  Lee. 
Edwin   C.   Lobenstine, 

China. 
Herman  Lohmann. 
Joseph  A.  Lucey. 
Martin  F.  Luther. 
Donald  B.  Macfarlane. 
A.  Maclaren. 
Farquhar   D.   MacRae, 

Canada. 
R.  George  McLeod. 
Alfred  D.  Moore,  New 

York. 
DuBois    S.    Morris, 

China. 


J.  Grant  Newman,  Ohio. 
E.  R.  Perry. 
John  Pigott. 
Jesse  Povey. 
William  G.  Ramsay. 
Maxwell  Rice. 
John  Romola. 
Boudinot  Seeley. 
J.  Andrew  SicelofF. 
John  E.  Steen,  France.  » 
Charles  F.  Taylor. 
L  Paul  Taylor. 
Henry  H.  Tweedy. 
Archibald  S.  VanOrden, 

New  Jersey. 
Joseph  A.  Villelli,  New 

York. 
Ernest  L.  Walz,  Jr. 
Clarence  E.  Wells. 
Irving  E.  White. 
D.  K.  Young. 


121 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


MEN  WORKERS  AT  MARKET 
STREET  CHURCH 


Donald  A.  Adams. 
Harry  L.  Adams. 
Robert  C.  Armstrong. 
George  M.  Bailey. 
Charles  D.  Baker  f. 
H.  Blackwood. 
Christian  A.  Borella  t- 
Thatcher  M.  Brown. 
Anthony  T.  Bruno. 
Lester  L.  Callan. 
Henry  Carpenter  f. 
Percy  Cocks. 
Arthur  P.   Dawson. 
Horace  Day  f- 
Moreau   Delano. 
John  Denham  f- 
Earl  M.  Dinger. 
William  Dollar  f- 
Edward  Dowling  f. 
Theodore  Dwight. 
Winthrop  E.  Dwight. 
William  B.  Easton. 
Henry  Edwards. 
Fred  Elmore. 
J.  Langdon  Erving. 
J.  Howard  Fowler. 
Arthur  W.  Francis. 
Joseph  A.  Goodhue. 
George  Graff. 
Thomas  Gregory. 
Charles  H.  Grosvenor. 
Coleridge  W.  Hart. 
J.  W.  Herring. 


Howard  I.  Hill. 
H.  E.  Hopkins. 
Nicolas  Joannides. 
Fritz  A.  Judson. 
Clarence  D.  Kingsley. 
Sterling  P.  Lamprecht. 
George    Larson. 
W.  S.  Maguire. 
George  T.  Matthews. 
John  R.  Miller. 
Nicolas  Motin. 
Arthur  Moulton. 
A.  Wheeler  Palmer. 
Christian  C.  Pedersen. 
Edward  Pepper  f. 
Lewis  Perry. 
W.  Smith  Pettit. 
J.  Raymond  Ramsay. 
Allan  Robinson. 
Willard  C.  Roper. 
George  G.  Scott. 
William  W.  Seymour. 
Frank  L.  Shoemaker. 
A.  Karl  Skinner. 
Floyd  Smith. 
John   M.   Styles. 
W.  S.  Sullivan. 
Fred  A.  Suter. 
Walter  Swanton. 
Harry  E.  Terrell. 
Henry  A.  Underwood  t- 
Paul  Van  Dewenter. 
William  White. 

122 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


WOMEN  WORKERS  AT  MARKET 
STREET  CHURCH 

Miss  Sophie  Crawford. 

"     Fanny  Crosby. 
Mrs.  Cumly. 

Miss  Marion  Darlington. 
"     E.  Day. 
"     Virginia  Deems. 
"     Mary  S.  Dodd. 
"     Maria  Dowd  (Mrs.  F. 

W.  Patterson). 
"     Henrietta  A.  Downes  f., 
"     Florence      Durstine 

(Mrs.  Hamilton). 
"    J.  Florence  Eldredge. 
"    Josephine    England. 
"     Edith   N.   Fairfield. 
"     Margaret  B.  Fairfield 

(Mrs.  Stone). 
"     Margaret  B.  Fergusson. 
"     Forrest  t. 
"     Freeman  (Mrs.  B.  F. 

Ross) . 
"     Ella   M.    Ganow. 
"     E.  Garbold  (Mrs.  Bene- 
dict). 
"     Hazel  Gardiner  (Mrs. 

O'Niel). 
"     Helen    Gildersleeve. 
"     Margaret  D.  Golde. 
"    Anna  A.   Gelding. 
"    Goodale. 

"     Gould   (Mrs.  Hallock). 
"     Irene    L.    Gregory. 
"     Virginia  P.   Grimes. 
"     Eleanor  Hague. 
"    Z,   Haines. 
"     Anna     I,.     Hall     (Mrs. 

M.  L.  Luther). 


Miss  Acker. 

"     E.  Adams. 
Mrs.  Alley. 
Miss  Alice   Antisdale. 

"     Mary  M.  Axtell. 

"     Mary    Baker     (Mrs. 
Fitch). 

"     Georgine   Bjersgard. 

"     Elizabeth  Bliss. 

"     Iv.  G.  Birch. 

"     Edith   M.   Bostmck. 

"     Rose   Brandt. 

"     Florence  Brooks  (Mrs. 
Edw.   S.   Cobb). 

"     Elsa    Brown    (Mrs. 
Barnes. 

"     Mae  M.  Brown. 

"     Sidney  M.  Brown  (Mrs. 
J.  J.  Rigby). 

"     Brownell. 

"     Katherine    E.    Bruck- 
bauer. 

"     Edith    Burnett. 

"     Mary  Cable. 
Mrs.  H.  Carpenter  t. 
Miss  Edith  R.  Catlin   (Mrs. 
Stowe  Phelps). 

"    E.  B.  Close  (Mrs.  J. 
Broomell). 
Mrs.  Collins. 
Miss  Margaret  C.  Condit. 

"     Caroline  E.  Cooper. 

"     Emma  J.  Couse. 

"     Frances  Cox. 

"     Anna   E.   Crawford. t 

"    Eleanor  J.  Crawford. 


123 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


Miss   Esther  Hall. 
"     M.    O.    Harris    (Mrs, 

McCullough). 
"     Lydia  A.   Hays. 
"     Helen   Hickok. 
"     Ida  M.   Hickok. 
"     Irene  Hickok. 
"     Alice  Hinman. 
"     Jane  E.  Hitchcock. 
"     Iveonora   Hogarth. 
"     Caroline  E.   Horton. 
"     Hotmer. 
"     Mary   Hubbard. 
"     Hudson. 
"     Daphne  Hutton  (Mrs. 

Stretch). 
"     Rosebelle    Jacobus. 
"     Helen  T.  Kenneally. 
"     E.  E.  Kirke. 
"     Catherine  M.  Kitchell 

(Mrs.    W.     R.     Jel- 

liffe). 
"     Gertrude  H.  Kitchell. 
"     Kittridge. 
"     Sarah    K.    Kliem    (Mrs. 

Willis). 
"    J.  E.  Knipe. 
"     Josephine    Knox    (Mrs. 

Livingston). 
"     Elizabeth    H.    Kunz. 
"     Dorothy  Kyberg. 
Mrs.  Belinda  C.  Lefler. 
Miss  Dorothy  Leider. 
"     Jessica  Lewis. 
"     Marjorie  Lewis. 
"     R.    Lobenstine. 
"     D.  J.  Luder. 
"     Katherine  Ludington. 
"     McCormick      (Mrs. 

Slade). 
"     Susanne   McFarland. 


Miss   Mary   McKelvey    (Mrs. 
W.   R.   Barbour). 

"  Ruth  McKelvey. 
Mrs.  Mary  Mackenzie. 
Miss  Lillie  Malken  t- 

"     Caroline  B.   Mills. 

"     Christine  A.   Mitchell. 

"     Gertrude  Morrow  (Mrs. 
Henry  J.  Condit). 

"     Neilson. 

"     Mary   E.  Newell. 

"  Adele  Norton  (Mrs. 
Fairbank). 

"  Martha  M.  Norton 
(Mrs.  A.  K.  Skin- 
ner). 

"     Marjorie  Nott. 

"     Louise  F.  Oswald. 

"     Otterbein. 

"     Rhoda  Packard. 

"     Maud  L.  Parks. 

"     Charlotte       Paulsen 
(Mrs.  G.  H.  Roth). 

"     Lydia    Paulsen     (Mrs. 
H.  D.   Schlichting). 
Mrs.  Pendleton. 
Miss  Phebe   Persons   (Mrs. 
Geo.  G.  Scott). 

"     M.  E.  Perdue. 

"     Lois  Pett. 

"     M.    G.   Revell. 

"  Edith  M.  Rockwell. 
Mrs.  Eliza  E.  Rockwell  t. 
Miss  Bessie   Rogers. 

"     Florence  E.  Roper. 

"     Anna   C.  Ruddy. 

"     Helen   Rumsey. 

"     Runyon. 

"    Alice   Sanford. 
Mrs.  Savidge. 
Miss  Shotwell. 


124 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 


Miss    Shumard. 
Mrs.  Mary   Sibertson. 
Miss  Angelina    Simonson. 

"     Eleanor  C.  Smith. 

"     Rose    Spenser. 

"     Georgina  Spooner. 

"     Margaret   H.    Steen. 

"     Mary  Steen. 

"     Mary  Stevenson   (Mrs. 
J.  J.  Hines). 

"     Marie   M.   Stevenson. 

"     Marion   Sturgis. 

"     Elsie  Street. 

"     Sarah   Swift. 

"     A.  J.  Taft. 

"     H.  N.  Taft. 

"     Georgina  Taylor. 

"     M.   Thompson. 

"     Alice   Townsend. 


Miss    Edith   W.    Townsend. 

"     Jean  A.  Travis. 

"     Pearl    C.   Underwood 
(Mrs.    J.    H.    Deni- 
son). 

*'     Henrietta  Van   Cleft. 

"  Elizabeth  Van  Rensel- 
laer  (Mrs.  Benja- 
min W.  Arnold). 

"     Katrina    Van    Wagenen 
(Mrs.   Briggs). 

"     Mollie   B.  Walsh    (Mrs. 
S.   K.   Higgins). 

"     Carrie   B.   Wasson. 

"     Fannie  Wells. 

"     Christine    T.    Wilson. 

"     Frances  Wheet. 

"     Irma  Wiss. 

"     C.   Ziegenfuss. 


^2S 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 
DIED  IN  SERVICE 

Henry  Rutgers  f  February  17,  1830. 
William  McMurray  f  September  24,  1835. 
Henry  Smith  f  March  19,  1873. 
Evan  Price  f  August  7,  1887. 
Edward  Hopper  f  April  23,  1888. 
James  Murphy  f  August  15,  1893. 
Benjamin  F.  Pinkham  f  March  22,  1897. 
Horace  Day  f  July  19,  1899. 
William  Boyce  f  February  18,  1901. 
Anna  E.  Crawford  f  December  18,  1905. 
Edward  Dowling  f  June  6,  1906. 
Eliza  E.  Rockwell  f  March  14,  1908. 
John  Denham  f  February  4,  1910. 


126 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

CHURCH  OFFICERS 
1919 

SESSION 
Rev.  Joseph  A.  Villelli,  Moderator. 
Rev.  Alfred  D.  Moore,  Minister. 
Rev.  Russell  J.  Clinchy,  Minister. 
Frederick  Briickbauer,  Clerk. 
Artemus  R.  Richtmyer,  Elder. 
Willard  A.  Hildreth,  Elder. 

TRUSTEES 

James  F.  Coupar,  President. 
Herman  D.  Schlichting,  Secretary. 
Frederick  Bruckbauer,  Treasurer. 
Louis  J.  Audley. 
Orrin  G.  Cocks. 
George  A.  Ferris. 
George  C.  Fraser. 
Willard  A.  Hildreth. 
Artemus  R.  Richtmyer. 

127 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  farm 
OLD  CHURCH  BUILDINGS 

1766     St.  Paul's  chapel,  Episcopal,  Broad- 
way and  Fulton  Sts. 

1819  Church  of  the  Sea  and  Land,  Dutch 

Reformed.       1866     Presbyterian, 
Market  and  Henry  Sts. 

1820  Church  of  the  Transfiguration,  Epis- 

copal.      1853     Roman     Catholic, 
Mott  and  Park  Sts. 
1825     First  Moravian  church.  Baptist,  then 
Episcopalian,  30th  St.  and  Lexing- 
ton Ave. 

1828  All  Saints'  church.  Episcopal,  Henry 

and  Scammel  Sts. 

1829  St.  Mark's  church.  Episcopal,  Stuy- 

vesant  Place.    Rebuilt  1858. 
1833     St.  Mary's  church,  Roman  Catholic, 

Grand  and  Ridge  Sts.  Brick  front 

recent. 
1836     Spring  Street  Presbyterian  church, 

246  Spring  St. 
1836    Allen  Memorial  church,  Methodist. 

1888  Jewish  Synagog. 
1838     St.  Peter's  church,  Roman  Catholic, 

Barclay  and  Church  Sts. 

128 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

1841     John   Street  church,  Methodist,  44 
John  St. 

1841  St.    Teresa's   church,   Presbyterian. 

1863    Roman    Catholic,    Rutgers 
and  Henry  Sts. 

1842  St.  Andrew's  church,  Roman  Cath- 

oHc,    Duane    St.    and    City    Hall 
Place. 

1843  Mariners'    Temple,    Baptist,   Oliver, 

and  Henry  Sts. 
1846    Trinity   church.    Episcopal,    Broad- 
way at  Wall  St. 


lap 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 
EAST  SIDE  STREETS 

Chatham  Square,  after  William  Pitt,  Earl 
of  Chatham,  our  friend  in  1776. 

Bayard  Street,  after  a  mayor,  nephew  of 
Peter  Stuyvesant. 

Canal  Street,  had  a  forty-foot  canal  in 
center,  fine  shaded  houses  at  sides. 

Division  Street,  the  dividing  line  between 
the  Rutgers  and  the  DeLancey  farms. 

East  Broadway,  formerly  Harmon  Street, 
after  a  Rutgers. 

Henry  Street,  after  Henry  Rutgers. 

Madison  Street,  after  the  President,  for- 
merly Bancker  Street,  after  a  Rutgers 
son-in-law. 

Monroe  Street,  after  the  President,  for- 
merly Lombardy  Street. 

Rutgers  Place,  site  of  the  Rutgers  Mansion. 

Hamilton  Street,  after  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton, formerly  Cheapside. 

Cherry  Street,  formerly  a  cherry  orchard. 

Oliver  Street,  formerly  Fayette  Street. 

Catherine  Street,  after  Catherine  Rutgers. 

Market  Street,  formerly  George  Street, 
after  King  George  of  England. 

130 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

Pike  Street,  War  of  1812,  formerly  Char- 
lotte Street,  after  a  queen  of  England. 

Rutgers  Street,  after  the  Rutgers  family. 

Jefferson  Street,  after  the  President. 

Clinton  Street,  after  Governor  Clinton. 

Montgomery  Street,  after  the  general  who 
fell  at  Quebec  in  1775. 

Gouvemeur  Street,  after  a  New  York  fam- 
ily- 
Jackson  Street,  after  the  President;  for- 
merly Walnut  Street. 

Corlears  Street,  after  Jacobus  Van  Corlear. 

Chrystie  Street,  after  an  officer  of  War  of 
1812. 

Forsyth  Street,  War  of  1812. 

Eldridge  Street,  after  Lieut.  Joseph  C.  El- 
dridge,  War  of  1812. 

Allen  Street,  after  Capt.  William  Henry 
Allen,  War  of  1812. 


131 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Recollections  of  a  Long  Life :  Theodore  L. 
Cuyler. 

Beside  the  Bowery:  John  Hopkins  Deni- 
son. 

From  the  Bottom  Up:  Alexander  F. 
Irvine. 

Dave  Ranney:   David  J.  Ranney. 

Nooks  and  Corners  of  Old  New  York: 
Charles  Hemstreet. 

New  York  Old  and  New:  Rufus  Rock- 
well Wilson. 

A  Tour  Around  New  York:  John  Flavel 
Mines. 

When  Old  New  York  Was  Young: 
Charles  Hemstreet. 

Historic  New  York :  Half -Moon  Papers. 

The  Leaven  in  a  Great  City:  Lillian  W. 
Betts. 

The  Better  New  York :  Tolman  and  Hem- 
street. 

The  New  York  Public  School:  A.  Emer- 
son Palmer. 

Helping  the  Helpless  in  Lower  New  York : 
Lucy  S.  Bainbridge. 

The  Fire  on  the  Hearth :  Edward  Hopper. 
132 


The  Kirk  on  Rutgers  Farm 

One  Wife  Too  Many:   Edward  Hopper. 

Old  Horse  Gray:  Edward  Hopper. 

Echoes  from  the  Song  of  Songs:  Mar- 
garetta  Hopper. 

An  Oriental  Land  of  the  Free:  John  H. 
Freeman. 

One  Hundred  Poems :  Jane  A.  Van  Allen, 

American  Notes:    Charles  Dickens. 

Valentine's  Manual  of  the  Common  Coun- 
cil. 

New  York  Genealogical  and  Biographical 
Record. 

Records  of  the  Market  Street  Dutch  Re- 
formed Church. 

Records  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  the 
Sea  and  Land. 

The  Sea  and  Land  Monthly. 

Handbooks  of  the  Presbytery  of  New 
York. 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America. 


133 


